FORESTRY IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE. 



83 



at about £6,000,000 annually. Here, then, are broad facts 

 which call for serious consideration. Endeavours to develop 

 more systematic forest management in many parts of the 

 Empire have frequently failed, because the limited funds 

 required for such measures were not forthcoming, or other 

 interests prevailed over the dictates of a sound forest policy, 

 while the enormous sum of money which goes every year out 

 of the Empire was lost sight of. 



Average Annual Increase, £675,000. 



The above table shows further that the mother country 

 swamps all the colonies and India in respect of imports ; of 

 the timber valued at £26,540,000 required annually by the 

 United Kingdom its dependencies could only furnish timber 

 valued at £'5,440,000. And yet, the United Kingdom has an 

 enormous area of mountain and heath land amounting to 

 some 15,000,000 acres, less than one-half of which could pro- 

 duce all the ordinary timber which is now imported. It has 

 been said that these lands are required for other purposes, 

 such as grazing, or that they produce more income as shooting 

 grounds than if planted with timber trees, but in many 

 instances there are good reasons to doubt such assertions. Be 

 this, however, as it may, the same argument does not hold good 



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