imported timber, is in itself a matter of momentous importance. Even if there were no other end to be served, surely this one object would be worthy of the ambition of any nation. But there are other advantages of no mean value which would follow and be derived from a marked extension in the area of our woodlands. There are, for instance, the increased labour which would be provided for our working classes, the beneficial effects which plantations exercise upon climate and soil, the shelter provided for agricultural land, and the beautifying effect of woods upon the landscape. Another consideration of importance is the increased provision which would thus be made against the dreaded dearth of timber in the comparatively near future. It is, indeed, an easy matter to make out a strong case for extended planting, at least from the national or public point of view. It would be easy to adduce evidence in support of all the advantages indicated. Some of them, however, are so self-evident as to render

this unnecessary. If we would wish to know what a vastly increased area of woodlands would mean to our working classes, we have but to glance across at the state of matters in Germany. In that country something like £4,150,000 is annually spent in the management, protection, and regeneration of the forests, and in the felling, preparing, and handling of the produce before it is delivered into the hands of the buyer; while the timber and other products of the woodlands directly afford employment to 583,000 persons (or 9 per cent of all the industrial classes throughout the empire) who are engaged in industries dependent on the forests for their raw material. It is esti

mated that these 583,000 breadwinners represent about 3,000,000 persons, or nearly one-sixteenth of the entire population. Moreover, to all this have to be added the very large sums incurred for transport by land and water after the raw produce of the forests has reached the hands of the buyer. Another authority states that from 190,000 to 230,000 families obtain their livelihood from work in the forests of Germany. No one will deny that a large extension in our woodland area would be an advantage to the industrial interests of the nation.

From time to time much has been written regarding the influence of plantations upon climatic conditions. Generally speak

ing, it is unquestionably beneficial. Woods moderate extremes of heat and cold. Well-wooded districts do not suffer so much as treeless regions either from the scorching heat of extremely hot summers or from the chilling frosts of bitterly cold winters. The general tendency of woods is to increase rainfall. This consideration would of course count for or against planting, according to whether the normal rainfall of the district happens to be insufficient or ample. In regions where the climate is naturally dry, great advantage has been gained by extensive planting. Dry arid winds which formerly swept over the treeless land have been softened and moistened, while springs of running water have appeared where, prior to the formation of the woods, there were no springs. On the other hand, the extensive clearing of woodlands in parts characterised by dry climates -as in

many districts of the United States of America-has been followed by the disappearance of springs and by the lessening of streams that were formerly reliable sources of water-supply.

These circumstances are explained by the facts that plantations conserve the moisture which descends n rain, yielding it gradually in springs and streams, and that in reeless parts the rainfall is carried away rapidly in the flood of the cime.

S

Tree-culture increases the fercility of the soil. It does this in more ways than one. Reference has already been made to the prosection which the woods provide so the soil from the effects of extreme heat and extreme cold, is also to the shelter from the blasting influence of dry arid winds. Woods, moreover, prewent the waste of soil by washing n times of heavy rainfall. But the influence of woods on the soil s not merely negative. They break up and loosen the lower ayers by the operations of the cree-roots. They add largely to che fertility of the surface-soil by che great mass of vegetable matter which drops upon it from the rees, and there decomposes and curns into humus. The tendency of all this is to raise the temperasure of the soil, and to render it capable of maintaining higher orms of vegetable life than it produced before it grew a crop of trees. Examples of the truth of this may be found in many parts of the country. The writer as in his mind's eye a certain hill amiliar to him. That hill is narked by a straight line running rom base to wellnigh the summit. On one side of this line nothing is o be seen but a mass of strong rown heather; on the other, the illside displays well-mixed pasure of wonderfully good quality. The contrast is striking. To what s it due? The straight line was he boundary fence of a thriving plantation that was cleared away few years ago.

There is no need to enlarge upon the great advantage that is derived from the shelter provided by plantations. The agricultural value of the adjoining land is thereby increased substantially to a far greater extent, indeed, than would be readily believed by those who have not observed the matter narrowly. It may be doubted if landowners and others, in weighing the "pros" and "cons" of planting, attach sufficient value to the important consideration of the shelter provided by the woods. The agricultural value of large areas of land may be sensibly increased by the judicious formation of adjacent plantations. It is but fair that the plantations should be credited with the amount of this increase. It is more than probable that if this were universally and faithfully done, the woodlands would in many instances stand higher than they do in the estimation of their

owners.

As an argument in favour of planting, something has been said of its beautifying effect upon the landscape. Is there nothing more in this than mere sentiment? If not, it is assuredly a sentiment which possesses a reliable market value.

It has been said that without woods there would be no landscape "worth speaking of." When one hears a district or an estate described as finely or beautifully wooded, one knows that more is meant and conveyed than that that district or estate is bearing a crop of timber that will in due time be marketable. What our own country in particular, even in this one sense, owes to its woods, is more than can be adequately expressed in the sombre measure of prose. The land of brown heath, of mountain and flood, would not be the land it is without its shaggy woods. Better and

"bonnier" it would be if its "shaggy woods were more plentiful than they are.

At once let

But it may be objected by the landowner, the man who should form the woods, that in all this we have been thinking too much of others and too little of himhave concerned ourselves too much with the advantages of woodlands to the country at large. "What of the interests of landowners? Would planting be profitable to them?" he may ask. it be admitted that this is the crux of the question. Unless there is good reason to believe that planting will be profitable to the planter, it is not likely to be carried out to any considerable extent. Landowners cannot be expected to form plantations from philanthropic motives. Private interest will govern here as in most other "going concerns." As to whether extensive planting in this country would or would not be profitable, there is great difference of opinion. Much will always depend upon local circumstances such as the suitability or unsuitability of the soil and district, the value of the land for other purposes, the manner in which the plantations are made, and the methods of treatment throughout the various stages of their existence. Planting upon land of any description that is ill suited for tree-growth is not likely to be attended with good results, however skilful the management. It would certainly not pay to plant the very poorest of poor land. Neither would it, as a rule, be profitable to plant land which has any considerable value for agricultural purposes. Throughout the country, however, there are vast areas of land which are of little value in their present condition, but which, with proper treat

ment, might produce crops of trees that would be, at least, fairly remunerative. At p. 40, vol. i., of the new edition of 'The Forester' we read the following:

"" 'It may be stated as a general rule, based on, and verified by, actual and Scotland, that land which is from practical experience both in England various causes unfit for arable occupation will, if brought under sylvicultural crops, and subjected to rational and careful management, at the end of seventy years pay the proprietor that he would have received from any nearly three times the sum of money other crop upon the same piece of ground."

In support of this statement examples are given of large and profitable returns from the sale of wood upon various estates in Scotland and the north of England. The editor of the new edition, is guarded in his language when he speaks of the probable returns from planting; yet he, as well as the author, is confident that in suitable surroundings, and with proper management, planting should almost invariably be profitable. His "practical experience, both at home and abroad, shows that for the poorer classes of land, sylvicultural occupation is on the whole much more advantageous than any other system, even for private owners."

One of the chief hindrances to planting is the long waiting for the harvest. A crop of trees is a slow-growing one. The men who plant rarely live to reap the benefit; that is reserved for the succeeding generation. Seventyeight or a hundred years are long periods of time to have to wait for the return of capital that perhaps at the outset can be but ill spared. These considerations naturally weigh with landowners, and will always act as a deterring

F.

ence to the forming of planta

nother hindrance to planting Scotland was the fact that e landowners could charge estates with the cost of other improvements, they d only do so with the cost lanting in cases in which the ting was being carried out for express purpose of providing er. Landowners were thereunable to get any assistance the provisions of the "Imement of Land Act, 1864," ne forming of plantations as re investment. This has now altered by the "Improvement Land (Scotland) Act, 1893," ch enables landowners to apply he Board of Agriculture for ission to charge their estates the cost of planting, whether helter or other purposes. It more than probable that this tend to increase the rate of ting in Scotland.

the new edition of 'The ester' much is said as to the re of Forestry in this and other tries, and as to the conditions er which success is most likely e attained.

The sister arts of Sylviculture Arboriculture," we read at p. 81, ., "are of vast importance both e welfare and the pleasure of all ons; and no people can be said to ise and economic which does not d to their advancement. The re of Forestry is not confined to one people or nation; it is a unial science, and an art capable of cultivated so as to promote the Fort and the happiness of every le in every clime, and to secure harvests to the industry of all ons that will put its precepts erly into practice."

ut if "rich harvests," direct direct, are to be derived from pursuit of Forestry, it is absoly essential that those intrust

ed with the formation and management of woodlands shall be equipped for their duties by a thorough education in the science and practice of Sylviculture. This is well enforced in the following extract from p. 81, vol. i., of the new edition of 'The Forester ':

"The only safe manner in which the future benefits derivable from a system of Sylviculture, based upon natural laws and carried out with curely realised, is by the thorough well-directed judgment, can be seeducation of practical foresters and sylviculturists. Upon these must chiefly depend the planning, the carrying out, and the supervision of all the operations in connection with the formation, tending, regeneration, protecting, utilising, and general management of the forests of the future-not only in this country, but in our colonies and dependencies as well. Care should be taken, therefore, that in the near future we may have a class of foresters who have received a sound general education in all the theoretical knowledge of their profession, combined with a good practical training, in which they may have proper opportunities of testing the soundness of the scientific teaching they receive. It is extremely undesirable that foresters should be men of theory alone. It is essential that they should be practical men; but they can only be well equipped for practical work when they have become thoroughly acquainted with the fundamental principles of scientific Forestry.

"So long as no well-organised system exists in this country for the education of foresters, the advancement of Sylviculture must be slow; for no art can flourish so long as it feels the want of a sure scientific foundation. From a purely nationaleconomic point of view, therefore, it would appear to be the duty of Government to establish, from national foresters as will be for the future funds, such means of education for benefit not only of this country, but also of all her colonies and dependencies."

Evidence is not wanting that the country is wakening up to a sense of the importance of treeculture as a national industry, and of the need there exists for the better training of those intrusted with the management of British forests. At the recent meeting of the British Association, the subject of Forestry received unusually prominent attention; and the publication of Professor Bayley Balfour's able and eminently practical address, delivered before that body, has been followed by a newspaper discussion which is both significant and suggestive. Professor Balfour strongly advocated the extension of systematic and scientific forestry in the British Isles, maintaining that it would be profitable to landowners, provide labour at seasons of the year when there is little else doing in country districts, stimulate other industries, and increase the national wealth. He acknowledged that the long waiting for the return would ever be a hindrance to extensive treeplanting; but he pointed out that, in properly managed timber-growing, areas would be so arranged that some part of the forest would be annually yielding its final return of mature crop :—

"Given a systematic cultivation of forest on scientific principles of rotation, the conditions are prepared for a steady output by annual cut, and for a supply of raw material to be utilised in subsidiary manufactures. Then the travelling timber-merchant, buying small lots and transporting them to his distant mill, might be superseded by the landowner's mill near the forest, and by his machinery for making useful products from waste wood. A steady market would favour the home-grown article, and local industries dependent upon forest growth would provide fresh outlets for forest produce."

But Professor Balfour did not go

too far when he asserted that, to become a profitable industry, Forestry must be practised as an applied science, and not as an empirical routine; and that the true solution of the question is to be found in the diffusion of accurate knowledge.

Little has as yet been done in this country to provide Forestry education. It was hoped that the Forestry Exhibition held at Edinburgh in 1884 would have provided funds to establish a Chair of Forestry in the University of Edinburgh. The Exhibition failed in that object, but was by

no

means fruitless. It gave a fresh impetus to the study of Forestry, and led to the consideration of the whole question of British Forestry by a Committee of the House of Commons. The Committee sat in the years 1885, 1886, and 1887, and produced an interesting and suggestive Report in August 1887. From that Report the following paragraph is taken :—

"Your Committee recommend the

establishment of a Forest Board. They are also satisfied by the evi

dence that the establishment of Forest Schools, or at any rate of a course of instruction and examination in Forestry, would be desirable, and they think that the consideration of the best mode of carrying this into effect might be one of the functions intrusted to such a Forest Board."

The Forest Board has not been established. Neither have the Forest Schools. Both must come. The sooner they are in existence the better it will be for British Forestry. The schools in particular are urgently needed. A beginning has been made, from which good things are expected. Board of Agriculture gives a grant of £100 a-year towards the Lectureship on Forestry temporarily

The