204 BRITISH WOODLAND 



erewhile seems inexhaustible, listen to President Roose- 

 velt's warning to the first Forestry Congress held at 

 Washington in 1905: 'If the present rate of forestry 

 destruction is allowed to continue with nothing to offset 

 it, a timber famine in the future is inevitable. Remember 

 that you can prevent such a famine occurring by wise 

 action being taken in time ; but once the famine occurs 

 there is no possible way of hurrying the growth of trees 

 necessary to relieve it.' Only in Great Britain, with her 

 matchless soil and climate for producing timber, are trees 

 treated as a rich man's luxury, for the adornment of parks 

 and the harbour of game. No state forests ? Oh yes, to 

 be sure there are : 64,000 acres in the New Forest alone, 

 besides other extensive woodlands. But these are no 

 source of revenue, present or prospective; much the 

 reverse, to the tune of many thousands a year. The 

 nation has willed it so; decreeing, through Parliament, 

 that the New Forest must not be handled scientifically, 

 but must be preserved as a sort of stupendous Chelsea 

 Hospital for cripples and moribund veterans. The con- 

 sequence is that to meet our industrial requirements we 

 are paying upwards of sixteen millions sterling annually 

 to the foreigner for timber, every foot of which, under 

 a more provident system, might have been grown at 

 home. Well, suppose we do buy instead of produce, we 

 can afford it. Yes, but how long will the supply last? 

 How long before the increasing demand will raise the 

 price beyond what it will pay our manufacturers to give ? 

 Not very long, according to all appearance. Germany 

 now uses up all she grows; so does the United States. 

 For coniferous timber, which constitutes four-fifths of our 

 consumption, we rely on Canada, Sweden, and Russia. 



