2 The Journal of Forestry. 



acknowledged to be, not only a practical art, a specific science, aa 

 .Tsthetic joy, and an economic interest; but also intended to be a 

 medium of inter-communication between those who are engaged ia 

 any way in the interests and industries which relate to timber 

 products — whether at home, in the colonies, or in foreign lands. 

 We seek to draw a widely dispersed and locally far separated 

 constituency into a union for intellectual and practical culture, 

 mutual improvement, social intercourse, and personal elevation 

 and progress; to give it cohesiveness and power, and to bring all its 

 various members into closer relationship in spirit as well as in 

 interest. 



It cannot be said by any one that the interest in whose favour we 

 offer to originate a centre is one of slight significance. The best 

 authorities inform us that the value of the forest produce of Great 

 Britain alone exceeds £3,000,000 sterling per annum. That repre- 

 sents a large total of capital and industry, as well as a wide 

 area of country occupied ; and it indicates that there is a 

 material interest involved, quite sufficient to call for some com- 

 bination of effort to secure its full development, better progress, and 

 continuous welfare. In this all are concerned, — the proprietors of 

 the extensive acreage laid out in wood and forest, the promoters of 

 public parks and pleasure-grounds, the chiefs of those industrial 

 arts in which timber is employed, the gentlemen of taste and position 

 to whom arboriculture presents itself as an ajsthetic pursuit, and all 

 those who as factors, managers, assistants, labourers, &c., are engaged 

 in carrying out practically the desires of those who have interest in 

 forestal lands, either as investments, as property, as ornaments 

 in landscapes, as objects of scientific research, or as industrial 

 pursuits. When, however, we extend our thoughts and reflect on India 

 and the Colonies as sources of interest in regard to wood produce, 

 the sense of the necessity of a Journal of Forestry receives enhance- 

 ment, and our wonder is excited that such an organ has not long ago 

 been established in this country for the organization and centralization 

 of forestal interests. It is true, we know, that the want of one has 

 been felt keenly and widely, although various obstacles have hitherto 

 prevented the establishment of it ; but, that hesitancy has been 

 exercised heretofore on inadequate grounds will, we trust, be proved 

 by the support given to the present endeavour to enfranchise 

 Forestry in the Republic of Letters. 



It may not be out of place to attempt a brief outline of the matter 

 which may wisely and usefully form some portion of the contents 

 of such a journal as shall bring Forestry into the foreground as a 

 science, an art, an economic department, and a source of social and 

 personal delight. 



