The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1909-02-10
FAR SIGHTED
 POLICY OUTLINED
English Commission Has
 Plan for Forest Conser- /. vation and Forest Plant
 mo-.

After 0neglecting, her forests for hun dreds of years, Great Britain has come
 to the front with the most far-sighted
 proposal for forest work and land i'm
 provement ever advanced by any na-
 tiona in a single plan.
 The recommendations just made to
 the British Government by the Royal
 Commission on Afforestation and Coast
 Erosion will make England self-sup-
 porting in the production of timber if
 successfully carried out.
 The report embraces two separate
 proposals, involving the forestation in
 one case of 9,0OO,0O0, and in the other of 5000, 900 acres. The former proposal calls for the forest planting of 150,00O
 acres a year for sixty years at an an-
 nual cost of $450,0O0 at the beginning to over $15, ,000, 900 at the end of the per
 iod. After the fortieth year, however,
 the forest would become self support
 ing. After eighty years, the forest
 would have value of $2,S10, ,000, 900,
 which is $535, ,0O0,0 900 in excess of the
 cost of producing it, and would yield 8 net annual revenue of $S7 500, 900, or $9.73 per acre from land now barely
 producing 50 cents per acre. While these. estimated returns are more than half again as much as the highly de- veloped forests of Saxony yield, it. is considerably less than the net revenue from the historic town forest of Eur ich Switzerland,. the Sihlwald. In volume, the annual estimated wood production would exceed the present annual wood imports to England by zoo, 900 ''loads."
 Great Britain has long been depend ent upon outside sources for her wood supplies. But the constantly increas- ing demand for wood, together with the overdrain already made upon these ind tnr cs17n 7ny,fa acr0 Nuf wood unless those countries which now have to. import are able to estab fish and maintain their forest inde- pendence and grow the needed wood at home. Most of the countries of Europe have taken care to keep up the home wood output by looking after their forests before they were destroy ed or hopelessly depleted and manag- ing them for a sustained annual yield about equal to the demand. The Brit ish Isles, however, are practically stripped of productive forests. If Great Britain is to grow her own wood, she will have to begin at the begin ming, set out the seedlings on treeless ground, and wait for them to reach marketable size. The commission rec oTnmendS that this work of starting future national forests from the seed be undertaken "as a sound and re- investment"
 There is no question, the report says, that substantially the anticipated re suits can be obtained. Experts tes- tified before the commission that ''the production of timber in Great Britain will be more rapid than in Saxony,' which was selected for, comparison on account of the close rese nnblance be- tween the economic and physical con- ditions in the two countries. -sY Yet in SaXony the net annual profits per acre from the national forests has increas- ed 412 per cent. in 90 years, mainly, it was testified, because of 'the more systematic and careful management" The lack of forests in Great Britain is the result, not of natural conditions. but of bad national economy. This is further proved by the fact that there are number of private forests which, though but indifferently amazed, are netting their owners handsome reve- nues.
 The proposal of the commission is esp pecially Interesting to- Americans in view of the fact that the measures that are now being proposed in the United States are so much simpler and less expensive. In this country the forests are already on the ground. All that is necessary is to bring them to a state of full productiveness. The present annual production of forests in
 
 twelve cubic feet per acre of all kinds of wood. The centuries of experience in Saxony, Switzerland, and France show that the same kind of land will grow three to eight times as much wood under wise forest management. Protection and proper cutting begun now and steadily followed as a policy will keep America from reaching a point, where, like Great Britain, it will be necessary, except in the prairie re- zion, to start the forests of the future from the seed, and wait for them to grow A tithe~ of the great outlay which the British commission contem- plates would easily guarantee this forest Independence for all time: And the wood needed each year could be got out of the forests right