The Utilify of our Victorian Forests. 405 



Considerations Affecting the Investment of Capital 



in Forestry. 



Forests do not require artificial manuriug, they require less mineral 

 matter from the soil thau field crops^ and they return to the soil in the 

 shape of leaves more substance than field crops. They also protect the 

 soil by their crowns^ and naturally conserve and create a thick layer of 

 humus, hence forests can be grown with success ou poorer ground than 

 field crops. Therefore, the inferior ground is left for forests, whilst the 

 better is allotted to crops. Forests are subject to many dangers ; 

 storms, fires, human agency, animals, and insect pests. Field crops 

 are only exposed to these dangers for a short period, say one or two 

 years, and from their limited area are more easily protected, and if 

 destroyed can be replaced in a year. Not so a forest. It is exposed 

 for a long period of years, and its large area interferes with its pro- 

 tection. A fire may destroy the whole of the growing stock, that has 

 taken 20 to 30 years to grow. Storms will uproot and break oif the 

 crowns of trees, and cases have occurred in Victoria clearly showing 

 how disastrous a storm can be. Insects can and are doing terrible 

 damage in some of the existing- State forests, both as borers and leaf 

 destroyers. 



Mistakes made in the cultivation of field crops can be rectified in 

 a year or so, but in forestry a mistake in working or in planting the 

 wrong species is often not detected for years. From this it can be 

 seen that losses are greater from want of care in forestry than in 

 field crops. 



Forest produce is bulky, far more so than field crops, therefore 

 forests must be preserved as near a market as possible, and their 

 produce consumed within a limited distance. Water transport is the 

 old cheap one, but Victoria possesses no great facilities in this way, 

 hence it is absolutely necessary to secure forests as near railways as 

 possible. Even now the cost of transport on forest produce is becom- 

 ing a serious tax on the consumer. The capital invested in a forest 

 stands great danger of being trenched on, far more so than on a farm 

 or sheep station. A farmer may overcrop and reduce the value of his 

 land, a station may overstock, but both can be easily detected and 

 rectified ; whereas, seeing the capital in a forest is represented by the 

 growing stock, and from this the annual return is looked for, an 

 ignorant forester could easily consume much of his capital by trying 

 to show large returns, without being detected or even without know- 

 ing it himself, doing thereby in two or three years damage that it 

 would take ten or more years to put right, let alone disorganising the 

 whole of the system of working the forest. Such mistakes are 

 common in forests, and Victoria has had her full share. 



Forests are all over the world burdened with rights or servitudes. 

 In Victoria the only recognised right is that belonging to the miner, and 

 without doubt it is the severest a forest has to contend with. In most 

 countries forest rights have existed for ages. In India, for instance, 

 villages existing near forests have the right to collect produce and 



