1885.] EDITORIAL NOTES. 165 



Crown Pkoperty. — In justification of Government founding two 

 parks, it is satisfactory to learn from the Annual Eeport of the Com- 

 missioners of Woods and Forests, that tlie value of the public 

 property under their charge has increased of late years. The gross 

 annual revenue, which was in 1851 only £341,000, is now over 

 £498,000. There has been a decrease since 1879 of the net 

 revenue paid into the national excliequer, owing to agricultural 

 depression. But a large proportion of tliis property is maintained 

 at a cost greatly exceeding the receipts. Windsor Park, including 

 14,000 acres, for instance, costs over £26,000, and yields an income 

 of nearly £5000. But the Commissioners cannot regard this outlay 

 in the light of profit and loss. Precisely so. Then why not add 

 two great public recreation-grounds, say of 36,000 acres each — one 

 in the Lake district and the other in the Sutherlandshire Highlands, 

 with the best aids that forest science could render? Here is a plea 

 for work to the unemployed — for the public practical teaching of 

 sylviculture, combined with that physical development so imperative 

 in this age of creat cities. 



The French State Forest Service.- — In view of the urgency of 

 leading demands for national re-afforestation necessarily under State 

 supervision and control, the impending overturn in the personnel of 

 this service may favour the views of the advocates of discentraliza- 

 tion in such organizations. The recommendations of the Commission 

 sitting to investigate the Budget of 1885 have been adopted. This 

 means the suppression of inspectors-general, of the chiefs of the 

 central administration, of three conservators, and of sixty-seven 

 inspectors. Farther on will be found a summary of the debate 

 in the Chamber of Deputies, in which M. Viette compared the 

 official visits of the inspectors-general to those of archbishops on 

 their episcopal tour, while the conservators simply vizied the reports 

 of the inspectors. Eigid economies, though not at the rate proposed 

 by tlie Extreme Left, are to be adopted. 



Can the Land produce moke ? — Yes, says Mr. Francis Fuller ; 

 if the Eeformatory and Industrial Farm Systeui of tillage were 

 adopted, which produces an average value of food of over £11 per 

 acre, as against £5, 10s., the Government-reported average of the 

 whole kingdom. Mr. Fuller says that one-third of our waste land 

 could thu . illed. If it were so, we might be food exporters, not 

 importers. 



