UNDERSTOCKED WOODS 39 



I saw the other day a claim for compensation owing 

 to a fire having occurred in some woods. The largest 

 item in the claim was for an area of wood said to be 

 of pit prop size, the trees growing on an average at 12 

 feet apart ! Woods of this nature and age would be 

 no more than half- stocked and the material of very 

 poor quality. There is a good deal of this sort of thing 

 in the country. Similarly the majority of the old woods 

 of commercial value are very open and understocked. 

 If 1,500,000 acres were in full bearing they would give 

 under proper management at 70 cubic feet per acre 

 (50 cubic feet final cut and 20 cubic feet thinnings) 

 105,000,000 cubic feet of mature timber annually on an 

 eighty-year rotation. As these woods are very far 

 from carrying normal crops per acre, the 12,000,000 

 cubic feet being cut out yearly by Government — and 

 the total may be larger if all sources of supply are 

 taken into account — together with the far larger annual 

 amounts of wood being felled by timber merchants, 

 must result, if the war is prolonged, in the disappear- 

 ance of most of our home woods possessing a com- 

 mercial value. And we have to add to this large areas 

 of immature woods being felled for the necessary sup- 

 plies for the collieries. 



The considerable areas which have a value othei 

 than the purely commercial — i.e., which serve for 

 shelter to stock and crops, are intimately connected 

 with the sporting value of estates, or are maintained 

 for amenity purposes — may be taken at about 1,500,000 

 acres. These will and should be left standing. They 

 are, in the main, of small size, and would not come 

 within the minimum of 500 acre blocks which commer- 

 5 



