1908 



Canadian Forestry Journal, Sovembcr, 1918 



Britain's Need— Canada's Opportunity 



By Sgt. James R. Dickson, 



Canadian Forestry Corps, England, late of Dominion 

 Forestry Branch Technical Staff 



Is Canada Prepared to "Grasp Occasion by the Hand" 

 — A Striking Discussion of After-War Conditions 



These are fateful days of change, 

 when the great surging torrent of 

 this World VVar is sweeping away old 

 conventions and customs, and in no 

 other sphere is this tendency more 

 marked and more potent than in 

 international trade. When the flood 

 subsides it will reveal world com- 

 merce beginning to flow along many 

 new or altered channels, and for 

 Canadians one of the most profitable 

 and far-reaching of such after-war 

 trade developments may well be 

 found in Britain's imported timber 

 requirements. 



In order to grasp the situation it 

 will be well briefly to consider Bri- 

 tain's position in this respect in 1913, 

 and what the outlook is likely to be 

 in 1920, as influenced by the war. 



Pre-War Conditions. 



The British Ministry of Recon- 

 struction has recently issued a most 

 informing and well-considered Final 

 Report dealing with the whole ques- 

 tion of Forestry in Britain; both from 

 the standpoint of a National War 

 Insurance Policy and on the broader 

 basis of total trade requirements. 

 The conclusion of the large and re- 

 presentative Committee who pre- 

 pared this Report is that the question 

 of Britain's future supply of conifer- 

 ous timber is: "A very grave and a 

 very urgent matter," and they regard 

 the possibility of obtaining this sup- 

 ply from Canada's timber farm as: 

 "An Imperial question of the first 

 magnitude, which deserves the im- 

 mediate attention of the Imperial 

 and Dominion Governments." 



Members of the Canadian Forestry 

 Association who wish to acquire a 

 basis of information for the considera- 

 tion of this problem would do well 



to become familiar with the data and 

 findings of this most interesting and 

 important Report. 



This Report indicates that in 1913 

 Britain imported the equivalent of 

 some 650,000,000 cubic feet of round 

 timber of such species as might have 

 been grown at home, that is to say 

 exclusive of tropical woods. She 

 imported in 1913, 90% of her total 

 needs in wood, wood manufactures 

 and wood pulp. For the past several 

 decades the British per capita demand 

 for wood and wood products has been 

 increasing three times as fast as the 

 population, and during recent pre- 

 war years this increase has been, in 

 concrete figures, approximately 5,- 

 000,000 cu. ft. per annum. 



In 1913 British forests covered 

 less than 4% of the total area of the 

 country and were producing less than 

 15 cu. feet per acre per year, whereas 

 the other Great Powers of Europe 

 (except Italy) had from 20 to 40% 

 of their total areas in forest, with 

 acre yields of from 25 to 90 cu. feet 

 per annum, depending on the measure 

 of science employed. From all of 

 which, and many other comparative 

 facts which might be quoted, we see 

 how extremely dependent on outside 

 sources of timber supply Great Bri- 

 tain was at the outbreak of this 

 war, and what an insignificant place 

 she accorded to the great Science of 

 Forestry. 



In 1913 Russia supplied, roughly, 

 50%, and other foreign countries 

 some 30% of the timber imported by 

 Britain, leaving (outside her domestic 

 production of 10%) only a paltry 

 10% that came from sources within 

 the Empire, — ^i.e. practically, from 

 Canada and Newfoundland. This 

 Canadian quota of some 35,000,000 



