CHAPTER XII. 



AFFORESTATION. 



IN a previous chapter afforestation was mentioned as one 

 of the means which the State should employ to develop 

 the national reserves of the country. In fact, if 

 afforestation is to be undertaken at all it must be done by 

 the State. Private individuals cannot undertake it. It 

 must extend over a larger area than the individual controls, 

 and it is not immediately rcmunerative,so that few individuals 

 find it worth while. So little, indeed, has forestry been in 

 the minds of English people that practically nothing is 

 known about it in this country and much that has been 

 loosely spoken about it is wide of the mark. 



Quite recently, in 1909, a Royal Commission issued a 

 Report on the subject,* containing the unanimous recom- 

 mendation of 19 Commissioners of all political parties, all of 

 whom were impressed with the need of State action. From 

 this report it appears that there is less forestry in this 

 country than anywhere in Europe, including Belgium where 

 the population is much denser than ours. The percentage 

 of land covered with trees in the various countries is as 

 Follows : 



17 3 



17 



5-8 

 4 c 

 8-9 

 1-5 



In 1907 we imported 8,313,957 loads of timber, costing 

 £20,127,943, from other countries of a climate similar to our 

 own. This could well have been grown on 9,000,000 acres of 

 land at home, and by a curious coincidence the inquiries of 



* Second Report of the Royal Commission on Coast Erosion, 

 Reclamation of Tidal Lands, and Afforestation in the United Kingdom. 

 Cd. 44G0. 1909. 



