CONCLUSION 315 
therefrom is now being used; while the price of 
the material that these countries export will rise 
if it should happen that those nearer the source of 
supply than England have in the future a larger 
use for the surplus available. For instance, Conti- 
nental countries absorb the excess forest harvest of 
Austria and Hungary, and will probably intercept 
that of Russia and Scandinavia as soon as any 
pressing need for it arises; and thus England might 
easily occupy a worse position in the timber market 
in the future than she does at present. 
In America the needs of the future have been 
recognized, and within a comparatively few years a 
State Forest Department has been created, with the 
intention of supplying later on the needs of the 
population; but trees do not grow in a day, and if 
the Americans want Canadian timber they can get 
it cheaper than we can. In the East, Japan is an 
instance of a country that has foreseen the impor- 
tance of forest conservation, and is taking steps to 
make it effective; while China has hitherto paid 
little attention to the matter, so that now there are 
places of which it is said that, so great is the scarcity 
of wood, there is neither fuel for the living nor 
coffins for the dead. 
All these countries are forced to maintain forests 
to protect the water-supply and to prevent erosion 
in the hills, and in proportion to the timely recog- 
nition of these indirect benefits, has been that of 
the direct benefits that have been conferred by 
the forests. England, on the other hand, is in a 
position to ignore to some extent the indirect in- 
fluences of the forest, and will certainly suffer in 
