Abstract
I HAVE read with great interest the lucid letter by Mr. Forbes under the above heading which appeared in NATURE of July 14, p. 54. When replying to Mr. Hiley's letter in NATURE of June 2, I did not rule out the importance of the production of meat as one source of the food supplies in Great Britain, as the last sentence of my reply bears witness. I am in agreement with Mr. Forbes when he says that many of the forests producing commercial timber in Europe are growing on soils which are by no means poor. But in many cases these soils would become poor and degraded if the forests were cut down and the land left exposed for a long period. Instances are known to me in Europe where magnificent hardwood forests are occupying a light soil of low quality, as is evidenced by the agricultural land in their vicinity. The latter areas once formed part of these forests and produced as fine a timber. It would now take a rotation at least before they could be brought into a condition to produce the same quality timber. It is known that areas which were disforested as late as the early years of last century now consist of a very poor agricultural soil.
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Quality of Soil in Relation to Food and Timber Supply. Nature 122, 170 (1928). https://doi.org/10.1038/122170a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/122170a0
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