Survey of British woodlands - 1924
The image has been taken from the Forestry Commission report on Census of Woodland and census of Production of Home Grown Timber 1924 - published in 1928. It does refer back to the 1918 survey as well as an even earlier one in 1905. The little table of total areas of woodlands present the age old dilemma of what to classify as woodland and how should it be recorded.
The explanation below the table highlights the very significant probably differences in survey categories of woodland. In particular it highlights the problem of how to record the ‘felled and devastated’ areas as well as ‘scrub’ which may not have been recorded previously.
This illustrates some of the key issues facing a nationwide forestry body such as the Forestry Commission. Firstly they needed to know how large was the nation wide forest estate and secondly what was the annual volume increment from that estate.
The full census report can be accessed currently via:
https://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/documents/2787/Census-of-Woodlands-1924.pdf