carefully fostered by the Government.  To take one example alone, the Landes, the district near the coast between Bordeaux and Bayonne, which had once been a region of dreary marsh, shifting sand, or scanty pasture, had been turned into splendid forest by wise forethought a century ago, and yielded great supplies of valuable timber.  Science has pointed out many ways in which small and waste wood also can be used for the production of a number of substances necessary in peace and still more urgently required in war.  The Landes country was noted for its production of rosin.  Thousands of cups into which it exudes from cuts in the trees are to be seen when passing through the forests in that region.

Shortage of tonnage during the War made it necessary to use the home supply of wood of the United Kingdom to the fullest extent.  A controller of timber supplies was appointed, though, as usual, rather late in the day.  Under his energetic management a very large part of the timber needed was obtained in this country.  It was essential to get all that was possible, but the result is inevitable “that we shall have to face a period in which production will be much below even the low figure which it had reached before the War.  Not only have mature crops been felled in all parts of the United Kingdom, but thousands of acres of young or immature woods have been felled for pit-wood and other purposes, or have been thinned to a degree which renders clearing and replanting absolutely essential.”

One painful result has also been to deprive certain places of the beautiful trees which gave the countryside there its special charm.  There is no plainer case for taking in hand the question of reconstruction at once, for framing a clear policy as to the steps to be used to repair the losses caused by war, and to ensure that in the future we shall not be so completely dependent on supplies from abroad through neglect of the possibilities of production at home.  A Committee, under the chairmanship of Mr. F.D.  Acland, was appointed in July, 1916, “to report upon the best means of conserving and developing the woodland and forestry resources of the United Kingdom, having regard to the experience gained during the War.”  The report of that Committee, dealing with the whole subject, was issued in 1918, and is a model of clear statement, and a mine of information made readily accessible.  It gives a full survey of the present position, and sets forth a “forest policy recommended” which is definite and worked out in detail.  The Committee find that “the timber position at home is bad, that prospects of supply from abroad are becoming doubtful, that ample supplies in time of emergency are a national necessity of the very first importance, that they can only be secured for certain if the timber be grown at home, and finally, that it is essential for the State to take a very much more active part in forestry than it has been content to take in the past.”  State action is becoming,