afforestation. But until the war practically all 
of these reports were relegated to the pigeon 
holes of government bureaus and came to 
naught. One exception, however, is to be noted; 
the report of the Royal Commission on Coast 
Erosion and Afforestation, of 1909, for while its 
recommendations were not acted upon, it ex- 
erted a useful influence on a sub-committee of 
the Reconstruction Committee of the British 
Cabinet that was appointed in 1916. The last 
named body secured results, for its report, 
known from the chairman, the Rt. Hon. F. D. 
because from the planted rorests on the private 
estates came the timber that kept England go- 
ing during the latter years of the great conflict. 
It was not, as our newspapers then had iit, the 
old oaks and other ornamental trees that line 
the long avenues by which one approaches the 
great houses, that were cut in the war—al- 
though some such trees were felled—but rather 
the even aged stands of Scots pine, spruce and 
larch that had been planted anywhere from 
50 or 60 to 120 or more years ago. Much of 
this material went into pit props (mine tim- 
A VIEW 
SHOWING 
SOME OF 
THE OLDEST 
AND BEST 
SCOTS PINE IN 
SCOTLAND. 
DEER OF 
CASTLE GRANT, 
GRANTOWN 
ON SPEY, IN 
FOREGROUND 
BLAIR CASTLE, 
SEAT OF 
THE DUKE 
OF ATHOLL, 
WHOSE FAMILY 
FOR 
GENERATIONS 
HAVE 
BEEN GREAT 
TREE 
PLANTERS, 
INTRODUCING 
LARCH INTO 
SCOTLAND 
IN 1738 
Acland, M. P., as the “Acland Report,” in effect 
resulted in the passage by Parliament, in the 
summer of 1919, of the act establishing the 
present Forestry Commission. 
The third point about the history of forestry 
in the United Kingdom is the active interest in 
trees and in forests that has been typical of 
the owners of the large private estates in Eng- 
land, Wales and Scotland for upwards of two 
centuries. This interest has served the nation 
well; first, because it led to the experimental 
planting of many exotic trees, and second, and 
certainly of infinite importance during the war, 
bers, we should call them) for the colleries of 
Wales and the midland counties of England. 
One striking instance of this use was told me 
in Wales. Before the war 95 percent of the 
pit props were imported. Many came from the 
south of France (Maritime pine) as a cheap 
return cargo in the coal ships that must other- 
wise have come home in ballast. During the 
war the ratio was exactly reversed; 95 percent 
of the pit props were home grown, 5 percent 
only were imported. The forests on the large 
estates saved the coal mines of England. 
It is difficult to obtain accurate data as: to 
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