84. OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 
and all under the best of management, they would 
probably be just about able to supply the demand 
for timber likely to exist at the time plantations 
now formed may become mature. Past experi- 
ence has shown that the demands for timber are 
constantly increasing, despite the more extensive 
use of substitutes like iron and stone for con- 
structive purposes. 
While the total imports of hewn timber have 
only risen slightly during the last five to eight 
years, those of sawn and dressed timber have 
during the same time increased by fifty per cent. 
in value; and this upward tendency is likely to 
manifest itself yet much more rapidly in the near 
future. It seems marvellous, indeed, that a matter 
of such great national importance has hitherto 
received so very little attention. If adequate 
measures were taken to try and grow the eighteen 
million pounds’ worth of pine and fir we now 
import, and which imports may become greatly 
increased in value within a comparatively short 
period, a vast economic field, now left neglected 
and uncultivated, could easily be made to yield 
a golden harvest. Not only would this vast sum 
be retained within our own country, in place 
