90 FORESTRY IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



which would be equal to 12 per cent, of the total area of Great 

 Britain and Ireland. The two classes of timber stand, however, 

 on a different footing. 



Dealing first with conifers, the Sub-Committee pointed out that 

 there is no necessity to provide a home supply of 620 million 

 cubic feet annually, as in normal times imports may come in as 

 before the war ; all that the country requires is to have sufficient 

 timber at home to make the country safe in time of an emergency. 

 Whatever the area under systematic management may be, the 

 different age gradations will always be represented running from 

 one year up to the age of rotation, say 80 years. In normal times 

 the oldest gradation, 80 years old, is cut every year, but in a case 

 of emergency more than one gradation may be cut, say, up to five, 

 and this might be repeated for, say, 3 years, making the country 

 safe for 3 years. There would then be left a series of age grada- 

 tions running from 1 to 68 years old. The deficiency in the normal 

 stock could then be replaced by cutting below the normal yield for 

 some years after the emergency period is passed. In adopting 

 such a system, only one-fifth of the above-mentioned area will be 

 required to make the country safe for 3 years. 



The case of hardwoods is different. While the afforestation 

 of conifers will be effected on land which is not fit or wanted for 

 the production of agricultural crops, hardwoods require as a rule 

 better land than conifers, and, apart from the area already under 

 wood, ' little land of the desired quality is obtainable without 

 encroaching upon agricultural land. A limited amount of hard- 

 wood must be grown with conifers for silvicultural and protective 

 reasons, but that rarely reaches proper timber size and quality. 

 Under these circumstances the State should buy woods and 

 especially devastated or cleared areas, and manage them for 

 the production of hardwoods on the principle of a sustained 

 yield. 



The required areas would thus stand as follows : — 



Acres. 



Area to be afforested with Conifers . . . . 1,770,000 



Area requiri^d for the production of Hardwoods . 100,000 



Total area to be afforested .... 1,870,000 



