SECTIONAL TRANSACTIONS.— K*. 393 



•over forests is found to average only one or two per cent, above that in the open ; 

 this is due to the increase in the effective height of the ground caused by the forests. 

 Forests are beneficial in conserving the winter snowfall. 



Dr. A. W. Borthwick. — Forestry in Relation to Water Catchment Areas. 



A.FTERNOON. 



Excursion to Fewstou Reservoir of Leeds Corporation. 



Sunday, September 4. 



Excursion to Jervaulx Abbey Woods. 



Monday, September 5. 



Address by Sir Peter Clutterbuck on Forestry and the Empire. 



Opening with general remarks on the importance of forests to mankind, the 

 coming timber famine is referred to. This pending calamity has resulted in a revival 

 of interest in forestry in many parts of the Empire. With a view to stimulating 

 sound principles, a system of periodical Empire Forestry Conferences was inaugurated 

 in 1920 in Great Britain, was continued in Canada in 1923, and is to be continued in 

 Australia and New Zealand in 1928, and in South Africa in 1933. Lord Lovat, then 

 Chairman of the Forestry Commission, was the prime mover in this matter. About 

 the same time the Empire Forestry Association was started under Royal Charter, 

 with a view to fostering interest in forestry and to assist in every possible way in 

 developing and encouraging correct principles of forest management. 



In order to provide for the future a judicious conservation of existing forests is 

 necessary, while afforestation would have to be undertaken in countries not 

 possessing a sufficient forest area. Timber, resulting from such efforts, will not, 

 however, in most eases grow quickly enough to affect the threatened famine. Even- 

 device for mitigating this famine must be sought for and pushed. Such devices are 

 by economising the consumption of soft woods, by persuading consumers wherever 

 possible to use the lighter hard woods available from the more tropical parts of the 

 Empire instead of soft woods, and by fostering the use of materials other than wood 

 for the manufacture of paper-pulp, and thus help to eke out the supply of soft woods. 



The forestry position in the various parts of the Empire is then touched upon. 



Mr. R. L. Robinson. — British Forest Policy. 



The paper is divided into three parts : — 



(1) Pre-war Policy, indicating briefly the efforts made by the State to safeguard 

 the supply of shipbuilding timber, for example, after the Civil Wars and the Napoleonic 

 Wars ; the period of neglect following on the decline of wooden ships and the free 

 access to abundant supplies of overseas timber to meet the needs of the great industrial 

 expansion ; the revival of interest during the twenty years or so preceding the Great 

 War. 



(2) Current Policy. — The experience of the Great War ; the Acland Committee's 

 programme ; the Forestry Act, 1919 : the Forestry Commission : its constitution, 

 procedure and results achieved ; the probable position at the expiration of the Commis- 

 sion's tenth year of existence. 



(3) Future Policy. — Factors bearing on its determination ; the state of British 

 woodlands as disclosed by Census of Woodlands ; probable demands for timber ; 

 prospective supplies ; productivity of and extent of land available for afforestation ; 

 forestry and land settlement ; responsibility of the State ; bases of action, finance 

 and administration. 



Mr. A. C. Forbes. — The Maintenance of Permanent Soft-wood Supplies 

 in North-W ester n Europe. 



The importance of an adequate supply of soft-wood timber is greatest in those 

 countries in which industrial development is most advanced ; building and railway 



