46 FORESTRY IN THE BRITISH EMPIRE. 



Until lately such knowledge was available only for some parts, 

 and very deficient as regards others. Much useful information 

 has now been collected in connection with the Empire Forestry 

 Conference held in 1920, and this has been fuUy utihzed in the 

 following pages. 



1. Historical. 



It is a curious fact that Great Britain, which was the last 

 European nation to estabhsh a forest department, had forest laws 

 more than a thousand years ago. No doubt, the forest laws of 

 WiUiam the Conqueror did not deal with the provision of forest 

 produce. Their object was to secure and develop the King's chase ; 

 they were harsh and even cruel. Still, the fact remains that 

 actual State, or Crown, forests existed. With the awakening of 

 more rational ideas, these laws were gradually amehorated and 

 finally abohshed. Remnants of the once extensive Crown forests 

 now remain, such as the Forest of Dean, the New Forest, and some 

 others, representing 2| per cent, of the forest area existing in these 

 islands at the present time. 



With the reduction of the old Crown forests and the ultimate 

 abolishment of the cruel forest laws, private forests sprang up, 

 probably in the first place for the purpose of amenities and the 

 improvement of the shooting. The economic aspect, however, 

 developed in the same degree as the forest area diminished, and 

 already, in the seventeenth century, John Evelyn, in his " Sylva," 

 wrote * " That we had better be without gold than without 

 timber." As a result, the area of private forests in the United 

 Kingdom amounts at the present time to about 3,000,000 acres. 

 On the other hand, the State remained indifferent on the question 

 of forestry. In the year 1855 an event occurred in India which 

 had the greatest effect upon the development of forest conser- 

 vancy, not only in the British Empire but also outside of it, and 

 more particularly in the United States of America. Local 

 attempts at forest conservancy had been made in India ever since 

 the beginning of the nineteenth century, but with indifferent 

 results. In the year 1855 Lord Dalhousie, Governor-General of 

 India, took the matter in hand and appointed a qualified superin- 

 tendent of the Pegu teak forests. That was the starting point of 



* Quoted by Lord Lovat in his address at the Guildhall on the 7th July, 

 1920. 



