36 AFFORESTATION OF WASTE LANDS [Mat 



80,000,000,000 feet, and this estimate includes the small and 

 inferior trees, which a few years ago would not have been considered 

 worth counting. The annual production of this lumber is not far 

 from 10,000,000,000 feet, and the demand is constantly and 

 rapidly increasing. 



" The publication of these facts a few months ago has greatly 

 increased, and in many cases more than doubled, the value of Pine 

 lands ; and it does not require any particular powers of foresight to 

 be able to predict that the price must advance to still higher figures. 

 Enougii is now known to permit the positive statement that no 

 great unexplored body of this Pine remains ; and that with the 

 exception of the narrow redwood belt of the California coast, no 

 North American forest can yield in quantity any substitute for it." 



Hence the importance of developing and extending our home 

 forests in anticipation of a probable timber famine. If America 

 cease to export, where is Britain to import its timber, annually 

 valued at from eighteen to twenty millions sterling, from ? Why 

 in the face of this should the millions of acres of suitable planting 

 ground in Britain lie waste ? 



The home timber trade in recent years has been much depressed, 

 and proprietors have found a difficulty in getting market for forest 

 produce, especially the smaller-sized timber, that in a proper system 

 of forest management must be periodically removed, and this is 

 likely to continue until a return of general commercial prosperity. 

 Hitherto the system of forestry in our country was to cut down 

 saplings as soon as saleable for a very nominal price, which has ruined 

 many valuable wooded properties. That system is now likely to be 

 reversed, as it is recognised as a matter of private as well as public 

 interest, that the future system of forest management will be the 

 production of mature timber suitable for constructive purposes, 

 which, in the face of what we have already stated, will meet with a 

 ready market a few years hence. 



Many entailed properties now richly wooded liave been afforested 

 by borrowing under the " Enclosure Commissioners' Act," thereby 

 enhancing the value of the land without incurring an outlay which 

 demanded immediate payment. And the proprietor who holds his 

 lands in " fee simple " could not invest in a safer and more profit- 

 able investment than that of judicious planting. The most economic 

 and best way to do this forms the subject of this paper, which we 

 propose to treat under four heads, viz, : — 



I. The selection of a district suitable for afforesting. 

 IT. Properly enclosing the land. 

 III. Drainage, and the formation of roads. 

 TV. The selection of plants and planting. 



