China is not the only country in the world where serious concern is boeing paid to the need for reatTorestation, The question is also uppermost in Great Britain but one of the obstacles is stated to be the rabbit. Dr. Wilson, of the National Home-Grown Timber Council, has something to say about Britain's neglect of her forests, and is arranging for con ferences between the timber growers, the great landlords, timber merchants, timber consumers and the officials of the Forestry Commission, to decide how best to replant the derelict forests, As an example, he says that during the last war 100,000,000 cubic fect of timber were cut from the. forests of Britain and used for military purposes but if we were in" volved in another war we could not cut anything ike that amount, In an interview, Dr, Wilson said: "People who want to replant Britain's forests have three obstacles to overcome—the economic factor, the time factor and the pest factor... The pest is the rabbit, In order to keep rabbits out of young plantations costly wire netting is required. People do not realise that the rabbit Is costing this country, from the timber point of view alone, an enormous sum of money every year, To wire a plantae than against rabbiis casts £5 on acre over a small area, slightly less over larger. areas. That alone prevents many landlords from planting forests, and one day the rabbit may cost this country more than monoy—its very life blood—if a war finds us without stock of standing timber." Australia's experience of the devastating cost of the rabbit pest should add point to the seriousness of Dr. Wilson's statement.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.