20 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



millions of acres in American woodlots stand ready to 

 supply fuel for our needs. The London Times recently 

 said of the lumber situation in England : 



In December a meeting was held at Westminster, 

 England, to consider the question of native timber sup- 

 plies for the war. It was called by the English Forestry 

 \->ciation and the Royal English Arboriculture Socie- 

 iv. J. B. Ball, Controller of Timber Supplies, express- 



lion were used for coal-mining purposes, the remainder 

 being sawn timber and a percentage of ash and oak. 



The requirements of the coal industry were enormous. 

 For the production of 250 million tons of coal per an- 

 num, it was estimated that 2> l A million tons of pit props 

 and pit wood were required. In regard to the output of 

 sawn timber, Mr. Ball said he hoped that during next 

 year they would be able to produce 300,000 standards. 



Photograph from Underwood & Underwood, New York. 



ENGLAND'S WOMEN LUMBERJACKS AT WORK IN THE FOREST 

 In England the wartime activities of women include every phase of lumbering. They undertake and accomplish satisfactorily the entire process of 

 converting the trees into lumber. As wood choppers they show remarkable skill and in the other phases of the work they are no less successful. 

 The workers are popular in the district in which they work and they are looked upon as important factors in helping England to win the war. 



ed satisfaction at the readiness with which landowners 

 had placed at the disposal of his department various 

 woods. At the outbreak of war enormous demands were 

 made on imported timber supplies for Army require- 

 ments, and in 191 5.. owing to the submarine warfare, it 

 was decided that steps should be taken to utilize home- 

 grown timber. At the end of May the present Timber 

 Control was instituted, and it had purchased something 

 like 75 million cubic feet of timber of all kinds, some of 

 which had been handed over to colliery associations in 

 order to enable them to carry on their work in the mines. 

 Up to the end of October the average price paid was 

 just gy 2 d. per cubic foot. In consequence of the de 

 mand, and the restriction of imports it was decided 

 to scrutinize the purchase of standing timber over 300 

 pounds in value, and an order was issued to that effect. 

 Such purchasers had to apply for permits, and 960 of 

 these had been issued, and 100 were now under consid- 

 eration. The quantity dealt with in these permits rep- 

 resented a total of 27 million cubic feet, of which 20 mil- 



The demands for imported timber had brought 

 about keen competition, which had resulted in big prices 

 being asked for standing timber, and in order to pre- 

 vent inflation, the Department had recently fixed the 

 maximum prices. It had also issued an order in regard 

 to Ireland, the object of which was to control the ex- 

 ports to Great Britain of native-grown Irish timber, and 

 to prevent the exploiting by Englishmen of woods at the 

 expense of the Irish home demand. 



The Coal Controller was naturally interested in the 

 price he had to pay for pit wood, and he was about to 

 issue to the collieries a schedule which fixed the price 

 they would have to pay. As to afforestation, his Depart- 

 ment had no direct mandate to deal with it ; but it seemed 

 to him, he said, that there ought not to be any very ser- 

 ious difficulty in developing home-grown timber. It 

 might be necessary to control further the user of home- 

 grown timber in the same way that the Department had 

 controlled the user of imported wood, but he declared 

 he would be very loath to do it. 



