38 FINANCE AND PLANTING METHODS 



higher than in pre-war days,^ as the suppHes we have 

 depended upon for the last thirty to forty years become 

 cut out. Further, the investment will be a sound one. 

 For when the woods become ready for the axe our 

 children and grandchildren can utilise the considerable 

 sums which such an investment will give them to defray 

 some of the enormous national debt with which the 

 country will be saddled. If from no other point of 

 view the planting of our waste lands at present bringing 

 in from id. to 2s. or so per acre will be a sound invest- 

 ment. 



To come now to a practical suggestion. Of the 

 3,000,000 acres of existing woodlands, it is extremely 

 probable that the woods of merely commercial value 

 will have been cut out by the end of the war. These 

 woods are being felled firstly at the instance of the 

 Home Timber Committee, who are purchasing areas 

 of standing woods and converting them by Govern- 

 ment agency, and secondly and to a larger extent by 

 timber merchants. The Government purchases run 

 into 1,000,000 cubic feet a month — approximately 

 25,000 B.G. sleepers and 250,000 cubic feet pitwood 

 and scantlings. This exploitation by Governtnent 

 agency, amounting to 12,000,000 cubic feet or there- 

 abouts per annum, would be inconsiderable even if 

 only half the area of our 3,000,000 acres of woodlands, 

 that is 1,500,000 acres, were fully productive. This 

 is certainly not the case, however. 



* The great increase in price of materials during 191 5 as com- 

 pared with 1 91 3 is discussed in Article XIV. Roughly speaking we 

 obtained 25 per cent, less material and paid 30 per cent, more for 

 the reduced amount than in 191 3. 



