232 The yourfial of Forestry. 



civilized countries, that both population and capital now move from 

 one of those countries to another on much less temptation than 

 heretofore." — " Political Economy," Book iii., chap, xvii. 



To apply these general principles to forestry, we must look upon it 

 as an art not merely designed to afford pleasure but to afford profit, 

 as an art based on science, the practical application of the principles 

 of the physical sciences which subserve the science of economics. 

 Forestry is the art of producing or growing timber. It is based on 

 the general principles and scattered observations of science, its main 

 object being a remunerative crop. As we cannot assess the value of 

 pleasurable feelings, we cannot reduce the landscape gardening 

 aspect of forestry — useful as it may be — to scientific principles. It 

 is i)urely subjective, a matter of taste. Scientific forestry, on the other 

 hand, is the growing the right tree in the right place. This is a purely 

 objective matter, a matter of fact. The right place must be in the 

 most suitable climate and soil, with the right amount of room or 

 shelter, and last, but not least, in proximity to a market for the 

 produce. 



South of the Thames we can be said to have little or no systematic 

 forestry, though there is abundance of waste land yielding no produce 

 or rental, much of which is obviously well suited to the growth of 

 timber. We have seen farmers from Norfolk utterly disgusted at the 

 tree-surrounded corn-fields of Surrey. The trees here are merely 

 ornamental ; but in the north-west and v/est of the same county, and 

 in the adjoining parts of Berkshire, are vast tracts of nearly treeless 

 moor. These wastes are on the Bagshot sand formation, and will 

 sustain but a very short, stunted growth of grass. With manure, 

 potatoes may succeed ; but without it, birch, conifers, and heather 

 seem to be its sole products. The admirably pervious character of the 

 soil has pointed it out as healthy for public institutions and cemeteries. 

 Unenclosed young firs are nibbled down by cattle or smothered by 

 heather, while strangely, as it seems to us, what planting has been 

 done is entirely of Scotch fir, instead of the more suitable and 

 probably more valuable larch, or a mixture. What inducement is 

 there then to plant such waste lands with trees, or similarly to plant 

 our chalk hills with beech and Scotch fir ? In answer to this it may 

 be sufficient to quote " Brown's Forester," only premising that his argu- 

 ments err rather in proving more than is required for his case or ours. 



" Land under wood will," he says, " at the end of sixty years, under 

 good management, pay the proprietor nearly three times the sum that 

 he would have received from any other crop upon the same piece of 

 ground." He then instances an estate at Craigston, in Aberdeenshire, 

 where land capable of yielding a yearly agricultural rent of ten 

 shillings was planted with larch, Scotch and spruce fir, 4,000 to the 



