572 



NA TURE 



[August i6, 1894 



iocrease the forest area." The significance of this dictum, if 

 it be established, to Britain, depindent so lar,»ely upon 

 her agriculture, is evident. Wet years, unfavourable to 

 farm crops, are, under existing conditions, more numerous 

 than favourable dry ones, and any extensive tree-plantin,; in 

 agricultural areas might therefore prove disastrous. Bat I may 

 here emphasise the point that, whilst for the growing of speci- 

 men trees we may agree with Evelyn when he says, " If I were 

 to make choice of the place or the tree, it should be such as 

 grows in the best cow-pasture, or upland meadow, where the 

 mould is rich and sweet," yet the harvest which scientific sylvi- 

 culture reaps comes from land unsuiled to agriculture, which 

 would otherwise lie barren and waste, and therefore schemes for 

 the afforestation of such areas in non-agricultural districts need 

 not be prejudiced by the prospect of an increased local rainfall. 

 At the same time we must not fail to learn the obvious lesson 

 that afforestation is not, as some suppose, a simple matter of 

 employment of labour, but that it involves the consideration of 

 weighty scientific problems. 



Forests, as a source of fuel, have not the direct impo-tanceto 

 this country, rich as it is in coal-supply, that they have in States 

 less favoured, l)ut their economic importance to us as a source 

 of timber needs no comment. There are no means available 

 through which to estimate the annual output of timber from our 

 plantations, but indirectly wc can gauge the insufficiency ol our 

 woodlands to supply the timber necessities of the country by 

 reference to the returns showing the amount and value of forest 

 produce annually imported. This has been steadily increasing 

 until in 1S93 its value exceeded eighteen million pounds. Of 

 course a considerable proportion of the materials thus 

 imported could not in any circumstances be produced in Britain. 

 But, after allowing a liberal discount for these, there remains a 

 large bill which we pay for produce, no small portion of which 

 could be furnished at home. No one would sugi;est that in the 

 limited and densely populated area of Great Britain timber- 

 trees of kinds suiting our climate could be grown sufficient to 

 supply all our demands ; that would be impossible. But few 

 would venture to deny that we could do very much better for 

 ourselves than wc do, and that our labour payments abroad 

 might be materially reduced. It is admitted that well-grown 

 home timber is, of its kind, equal to, if not superior 

 in quality to, that which is impirted; it is surely, 

 then, legitimate to expect that a large supply of well- 

 giown timber would enable us to hold the market to a much 

 larger extent than is presently the case, and that we might be 

 very much less dependent than we are upon the surplus timber 

 of other nations. 



The importance of this to the country is increased by the 

 consideration of the continued appreciation of limber. There 

 is abundant evidence forthcoming to indicate that the present 

 rale of timber consumption of the world is in excess of the 

 present reproduction in the forests of the great limber supplying 

 countries, and with the persistence of existing cundiiions wc 

 would appear to be within measurable distance of timber famine. 

 Experience, too, teaches that we may expect not a diminution 

 but rather an increase in consu nption. N.> doubt as civilisation 

 advances ihe discoveries of science will, as they have done in 

 the past, enable us 10 substitute in many ways for the naturally 

 produced wood other substances prepared by manufacture ; but 

 this saving in some directions has been, and will probably 

 continue to be, counterbalanced by greater utilisation in others 

 — witness, for example, the enormous developnienl within 

 recent years of the wood-pu'p industry al>road, and consider 

 the prospeci opened up by the manufacture of wood silk which 

 it now being t>egun in Britain. 



That Ihe pissihiliiy of forest exhaustion is no chimera should 

 be evident to anyone conversant with current timber literature. 

 Taking North Europe, for instance : — In Norway, " raw limber 

 if yearly bee iming m>rc expensive and more dilTiculi to obtain." 

 To Sweden, " pitch pine long beams are taken fr.im America, 

 luilable onc< of sufficient %\ii and quality being unobtainable 

 now in Sweden." In Scandinavia, the virgin forests, "except- 

 ing such as are specially reserved by the Governm^rnt in the 

 districts where mills arc tilualed, arc almost exhausted." In 

 Ruisia, the Riga "supplyofoak isexhausled." These senlences, 

 culled within the pait tew weeks from trade journals, show that 

 (hit is a more pertinent question than some would supp >se. In 

 Sweden, which, it is remarkable, is actually importing logs from 

 America, the situation is regarded as so serious that proposals 

 are on foot for Ihe impoiitijn of a tax upon exp)ried iiml>er for 



NO. 1294, VOL. 50] 



the purpose of raising a fund for replanting denuded areas. But 

 it is not only in North European countries that there are signs 

 of the giving out of timber forests. .'Vs they fail the demand 

 upon Canadian and .Vmerican stocks increases, and when we 

 look at these Canada "shows signs of beginning to find it hard 

 10 continue her voluminous exports to Europe, and at the same 

 time send sufficient supplies 10 the United Stales." But the 

 most .striking evidence is that furnished by the chief of the 

 United Slates department of forestry, in his official report for 

 the year iSga.in which he says : " While there are still enormous 

 quantities of virgin timber standing, the supply is not inex- 

 haustible. Even were we to assume on every .acre a stand of 

 10,000 feet B. .M. of saw timber — a most extrav,igant average — 

 we would, with our present consumption, h.ave hardly one 

 hundred years of supply in sight, Ihe lime it takes to grow a 

 tree to a satisfactory log size. Certain kinds of supplies are 

 beginning to give out. Even the while pine resources, which a 

 few years ago seemed so great that to attempt an accurate esti- 

 mate of them was deemed too difficult an undertaking, have, 

 since then, become reduced to such small proportions thai the 

 end of the whole supply in both Canada and the United States 

 is now plainly in view." 



It must be owned that there are those who do not regard the 

 suggestion of forest exhaustion as a serious one. They argue 

 that the prophecy is no new one, and yet we are none the worse 

 off than we have been ; that failing supply from one source it 

 has always been possible to lap another, and .so it will probably 

 continue ; and then Ihe period when exhaustion is likely to lalie 

 place is so far oft, there is ample lime for the growth of new 

 forests to replace those being cut. No doubt there is time. 

 But this is just Ihe kernel of Ihe whole forestry question. With 

 proper conservancy of forest areas, the applicition of scientitic 

 principles to the recuper.ation of areas recklessly denuded, and 

 the afforestation of barren and waste lands, timber sufticienl to 

 meet a greater demand than is now made could be produced. 

 This is the aim of scientific forestry, and it is to secure this that 

 those who have given attention to Ihe subject are working, con- 

 ceiving it to be a duty of this generation to hand down to its 

 successors a heritage no less valuable than that which it received. 



With an acreage of wooded land amounting to only 4 per 

 cent, of their lolal area. Great Britain and Ireland possess a 

 smaller proportion so covered than any o'.li-r ICuropean country. 

 Denmark comes near with only about 5 per cent., in l''r.ance 

 the percentage rises to 15, in Norway and Germany to 25, in 

 Austria-Hungary to 30, whilst in Sweden the amount is overdo 

 percent. Tne United Stales is estimated to have about 25 per 

 cent. These figures do not, however, give a fair basis of com- 

 parison of the amount of limber area in tireal Britain with other 

 countries, inasmuch as in the continental lands the bulk of the 

 woodlands is true forest, whilst a large part of the area inciuicil 

 in the British return is merely pleasure ground, and another 

 large portion is only planlalion ; of real forest ihe area i~ 

 extremely limited. It is not surprising, then, that we are n i 

 able to furnish ourselves with an adcquaiesup|)ly of limber. Bui 

 although there is so little land under wood, ihercare thousands 

 of acres unsuitcd for any other crop, and these for reasons I 

 have already indicated, it is desirable to have planted. How 

 to have this accomplished, and how to secure that woodlands 

 already existing shall be tended so as to produce a maximum 

 result, giving a profitable return, are Ihe problems we wish to 

 see solved. 



It will conduce to appreciation of the question if I briefly dis- 

 cuss the causes which fiave been active in developing the pre- 

 sent condition of woodlands in Britain, and in bringing about 

 the disparity between it and olhei countries in respeci ol wood- 

 land area. 



State ownership of continental forests will probably occur \'< 

 most people as the reason for the difference in area jusi poinleil 

 out. This IS Hue with, however, some qualllicalion. In con- 

 sequence of Ihe circumstances of their situation continental 

 Stales have been comiielled to recognise Ihe national economic 

 importance of forests. This ihey have done, not so much by 

 Ihe creation of State ownership in vast forests as by the organisu- 

 tion of a State deparliLcnl of forestry and a .Siatc system of 

 forestry education. It is altogether a mistake lo suppose, as is 

 often Ihc case, that the whole or even a large part of the forests 

 on Ihe continent belong lo the respcclive Stales, The amoun' 

 of Slate-owned forest is surprisingly small. Kernow givi 

 it in Germany as about ^^ per cent, ol the whole forest area ; in 

 .Scandinavia 15 lo 20 per cent., in France some 10 per cent,, 



