THE NATIONAL NUKSEIIYMAN 
241 
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England’s Famous Forests Sacrificed to the Needs of War 
Sdlure Wears Another Aspect in the Once Splendidly Wooded Sections Munition 
W'orkers Contribute an Airplane 
Although the (lenuaiis havo not sot foot in England and 
I ho horrors of invasion havo boon sparod tho country, 
novortholess its natural aspect is undergoing a gi(‘,al 
change due to the war. The beautiful woodlands, for¬ 
ests, woods and gioves that for eenturies have made its 
landscape of unrivalled beauty are fast disappearing un¬ 
der the axes of the (lovernniont’s lumbermen. It is only 
a (piestion of time, aeeording to the report of the forestry 
suh-oommittee of the Reconstruction Committee, before 
the whole of tho country’s growing timber which is lit 
for commercial use must disappear. Even if every acre 
foiled is replanted, it will be many years before the 
present output can he repeated. 
It is estimated that by the summer of this year the 
(lovernment and the lumber trade will probably be con¬ 
verting trees into timber at the rate of 6,000,000 tons per 
annum, or more than half of our total imports of timber 
in the last yt^ar before the war. Indeed, the need of tim¬ 
ber is so great and imperative that it is feared by the end 
of next year the Government will have to cut all the re¬ 
maining substantial blocks of mature coniferous tindjer 
in the country. And by substantial blocks is meant any 
patches of any size whatever suitable for cutting. It is 
only too probable that this destruction of the beautiful 
woods of England will have to go on to the bitter end, as 
the demand for timber is a continuous and compulsory 
one so long as the war lasts. 
Fortunately, the Government is taking all possihh^ 
steps to r(^j)lace the trees. These efforts are among the 
most notable feats of organization during the war. They 
have resulted in the transplantation to this country of 
many lumbermen’s camps from Canada, Newfoundland 
and the United States, where the forestry theories and 
practices of the far away virgin forests are being applied 
to English woodland. 
In the meantime the woods of England continue to go. 
Whdt it means in a given district is illustrated quite close 
to London, at Farnham in Surrey, less than forty miles 
from the capital. 
This district has been bled almost as much as any in 
the south, and what has been done is but a foretaste of 
what must follow. For miles it is hardly possible to be 
out of sight of areas which have been completely cleared 
or are littered with freshly gashed and trimmed trees or 
of woodlands in which tlie standing timber is already 
marked for destruction. From Crooksbury to Tilford, to 
Churt by Frensham and back to Farnham, everywhere is 
the same picture of destruction; forests cleared except 
for a shelter belt to protect new saplings, entire wood¬ 
lands gone save for a few marked trees, trunks, and logs 
in thousands lying where they fell and awaiting removal. 
At Rlacklake a new camp is being erected for Cana¬ 
dian lumbermen who will cut down the tall red tufted 
pines and lay bare a great swath of country from the 
Farnham road across the woods of Waverley and Moor 
Park to Crooksbury Hill itself. This is just one examphi 
of what is going on all over Great Britain, Welsh, Scotch 
and the Lake country vales, that is, the Vale of Conway 
and the Vale of Llangollen and certain parts of Cumbria, 
show the forest loss most because whole mountains have 
been cleared and the destruction is most apparent on high 
country. In Devonshire great areas have been (*ut down 
to the north of Exmoor and many other localities, and 
several companies of the Canadian Forestry Corps are 
working in the country. 
In the New Forest there has been a very heavy cut of 
the fine old timber. In Bedfordshire the woodlands of 
the Duke of Bedford and of Viscount P(;el have suffered 
tremendously. Virginia Water, Windsor Forest and tin; 
Sunningdale region have been cut over by Canadian lum¬ 
bermen, who are also cutting near W(dlinglon College 
and Sandhurst, as well as on the South Downs in 
Eartham Woods. In Suffolk and Norfolk tho forests an; 
falling rapidly. Historic seats are not spared. The 
woods of Beaulieu have been well cut out and the magni¬ 
ficent silver firs at Longleat in Wiltshire, many of tliern 
six feet in diameter, are falling. From the magnificent 
high forest of Spanish ehestnut trees at Welbeck Abbey 
at least a million feet are to be cut. 
These details give but a faint suggestion of what is 
going on from one end of Great Britain to the other. 
Without having put foot on England the destructive in¬ 
fluence of the Germans is seen in the disappearance of 
its incomparable woodland beauties. It has been largely 
due to its trees and woodlands that England has always 
ranked among the most beautiful of European countries. 
Its climate and its extraordinary variety of soil have been 
peculiarly favdrable for the growth of trees in unusual 
variety. Its freedom from great extremes of heat and 
cold have made it the home of trees unknown in many, 
parts of northern Europe. In its limited area a great¬ 
er variety is to be seen than can be absented in immensely 
larger areas on the Continent. 
In a journey of fifty to eighty miles from London to 
the Channel one finds hedgerow elms, thorns and oaks of 
the meadows, silver birches, chestnuts and many coni¬ 
fers of the lower commons; the willows, alders and pop¬ 
lars of the valley; the ancient thorns and hollies of the 
higher commons; the beechwoods of the North Downs; 
the white bean, yew. juniper and box on the greens and 
ridges and the forests of mighty Scotch pines, silver firs, 
larch and the great oaks of the Weald; the conifers and 
chestnuts of the Hastings sand forest region, and then 
the elder, ash and thorn of the eastern end of the South 
Downs, and the beech, birch, sweet chestnut, ash and 
mighty yew at their western-end. And this variety is not 
only typical of the nearby counties, but more or less of 
all England, Scotland and Wales. 
With the exception of certain exotic trees brought 
here and there, perhaps by the Romans, it is pretty clear 
