CONSTANT NEED FOR TIMBER xix 



of that amount of timber which a sudden emergency 

 might demand. An almost total reUance on imports 

 of foreign produce, which our Navy was to undertake 

 to see reached us ; for so ran our justification for the 

 neglect of planting, in forgetfulness of the fact that our 

 main sources of supply might become closed, from 

 causes over which the Navy had no control. This 

 was the position when the greatest war in history burst 

 upon us. We were caught totally unprepared and the 

 results, from a financial point of view, were deplor- 

 able. Prices mounted up to famine rates. The 

 Admiralty, just as in the days of peril which arose a 

 hundred years after Evelyn lived and died, though now 

 for a different purpose, wanted wood. The War 

 Office wanted timber, large amounts of it. During the 

 first twenty- two months of the war the materials have 

 been obtained at the cost of milUons of money. What 

 would Evelyn have said to ash at 3s. to 4s. per cubic 

 foot, its pre-war price of our day being is. 6d. ? 



There appears small reason to doubt that the 

 action of the Royal Society in 1662, and of their chosen 

 representative, saved the country a hundred years or 

 so later ; since sufficient oak timber was forthcoming 

 to build the " wooden walls " which gave us the 

 command of the sea. 



No one can look into the future, but the present war 

 has shown us the imperative duty which is laid upon 

 each generation to see that sufficient planting is done 

 in its time to ensure that the country shall possess a 

 sufficiency of timber in its hour of need. The war did 

 not find us so prepared. We are now faced with a 

 position similar to that existing at the beginning of 



