The Principles of Forestri/. 
339 
indispensably necessary, for enabling us to report the state of the forests 
with due acciu-acv, to cause geometrical and descriptive siirvevs to be made 
thereof." 
In their third report, issued in June 1788, the Commissioners 
say: — 
" We are aware that there have been similar complaints, and apprehen- 
sions of a want of naval timber in every age, from very early times ; and it 
may therefore probably be supposed that the danger is not more real now 
than it has formerly been. It may be imagined that if there be an increased 
demand for naval timber, as that demand must necessarily add to the price, 
and thereby give greater encouragement to importation and planting, there 
can be no reason to apprehend that where industry is so general, and pro- 
perty so secure, as they are in this country, an ample supply will not always 
be obtained from private propei'ty or from general commerce." 
They proceed, however, to take exception to this supposi- 
tion, as will be seen by the following extract from the same 
report : — 
" It will be found, however, that this principle does not hold in the case 
of naval timber, . . . and our information as to the reality of the general 
decrease of timber is too certain to admit of any doubt " (the italics are mine). 
In their eleventh report, issued in 1792, they say: — 
"The public interest certainly requires that so extensive and so valuable 
a part of the landed property of the country should not be suflered longer 
to continue in its present unproductive state ; and that either the plan of 
management which has been pursued ever since the beginning of the present 
century, and which has had such destructive efiects, should be completely 
altered, and new regulations established, which may render those forests 
useful nurseries of timber for the navy ; or that they should be sold, and 
converted to tillage or pasture, so as to add to the produce and population 
of the kingdom." 
In their report of 1793 they say : — 
" In our reports on the several forests we have described the manage- 
ment and pointed out the prevailing abuses ; and we have proposed such 
alterations ... to pave the way to the improvement of each Jorest." 
The system which arose from the above reports began to 
be carried into effect in the year 1813, and has been kept in 
view ever since. 
In 1812, however, a further report was issued by the then 
Commissioners in compliance with the Acts of 34th George III., 
cap. 75, and 50th George III., cap. C5, Part II. of which shoukl 
be read carefully by all interested in this subject. It dwells 
almost entirely on the subject of the available supply of oak, and 
the enormous demand upon it for naval purposes ; and arrives at 
this alarming deduction — that to meet the requirements of the 
navy on its then scale, a thousand acres of fully developed trees 
(taking forty to the acre, containing each one load and a half of 
timber) would be required for each year's use. 
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