State Afforestation

Abstract

SIR JOHN STIRLING MAXWELL in three recent articles in the Times (June 19, 20, and 26) deals with State afforestation, which will probably prove to be one of the best means for the settlement of soldiers and sailors on the land after the war, and at the same time be effective in utilising the large tracts of waste land which are unsuitable for tillage and unprofitable for grazing. In spite of the numerous official Commissions, and Committees which during the past twenty years have all agreed on the urgent need of national afforestation, little progress has been made. The Development Grant was instituted in 1909 for the express purpose of “the purchase and preparation of land for afforestation and the setting up of a number of experimental forests on a large scale “; but these objects have not been achieved. Sir John points out the probable reasons for this failure. In the past poor management and irregular sales on the majority of privately owned woodland estates, in conjunction with an unorganised timber trade and heavy and unequal rates of freight by rail on home-grown as compared with imported timber, have all combined “to turn profit into loss, and give forestry a bad name.” This influenced the Development Commissioners, who limited their encouragement of forestry to “certain small but useful grants in aid of education, and in finding money to provide local forestry advisers. Of actual afforestation, a few acres planted in the water catchment areas of Liverpool and Edinburgh are the only instalments.”