1885.] THE ENGLISH ARBORICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 191 



believed he was one of the four who first talked of the feasibility of the 

 scheme, which very soon assumed the practical shape he had described. 



THE HISTORY AND AIM OF THE SOCIETY. 



This was the title of a paper read by Mr. W. Clark, of Carlisle. 

 Having described the history of the Society which owed its birth to 

 the county of Northumberland, he dealt with its aim under the 

 following heads : — (1) As it affects landowners ; (2) as it affects wood 

 foresters ; and (3) as it affects our own nation. Discussing the 

 question as it affected landowners, he pointed out that the primary 

 consideration for them must naturally be a financial one. This was 

 commonly supposed to refer to the value of timber cut and sold from 

 a given area. That, however, was a Cjuestion which he would leave 

 to others to discuss. He then proceeded to deal with the subject of 

 finances under five divisions as follows :— (1) The value of shelter 

 plantations ; (2) the value of plantations for appearance ; (.3) the 

 value of plantations for game ; (4) hygiene and superfluous moisture; 

 (5) the possibility of new markets for the produce. With regard to 

 the latter head, he said the Forestry Exhibition in Edinburgh made 

 one thing very evident, that.tliere was a large field for ingenuity and 

 enterprise for native timber, and many of the articles manufactured 

 were natty, useful, creditable, and desirable. Coming to the third 

 head of the subject, he said forestry had a national value, and it 

 followed that any encouragement in the practice was a national gain. 

 Forestry in regard to hygiene, a subject on which he had dealt at 

 length, was surely a national matter ; but this aspect of the question 

 was now much better understood and valued than previously, 

 particularly in towns and open spaces, its necessity being acknow- 

 ledged for the health of the inhabitants. It had now been fully 

 proved that when the natural forests disappear to any great extent, 

 drought began to prevail, and the produce on the land was destroyed 

 for want of moisture. This fact was now so apparent in some parts 

 of America, that a scheme of re-afforesting was now an acknowledged 

 duty on the part of the American Government. A writer had stated 

 in a recent number of a scientific magazine that the true basis of 

 national wealth was not gold, but wood, and in support of this pro- 

 position the following facts were adduced : — Tlie great tableland of 

 Central Asia was in historic times as fertile as a garden, and produced 

 food for the support of great and populous nations. The reckless 

 destruction of the forests had converted the great plains and valleys 

 of that part of the world into dreary deserts, which afforded susten- 

 ance to only a few scattered tribes of nomads. Immense herds of 

 sheep and goats, computed at 15,000 in each herd, were the instru- 

 ments which brought about this terrible transition. These immense 



