1917] on Scientific Forestry for the United Kingdom 05 



beginning of the nineteenth centuries, forestry played a considerable 

 part on most private estates, ^vhile the Government, deeply concerned 

 in the supply of oak for naval construction, made that the main 

 object in the management of the Crown Forests. Then, quite 

 suddenly, British forestry fell into oblivion. With the substitution 

 of steel for wooden ships, the Royal forests lost their importance and 

 turned into national playgrounds. The cheap importation by steam 

 of first-class timber from virgin forests overseas rendered the culti- 

 vation of coniferous wood unprofitable, and indeed unnecessary, 

 except for shelter and beauty. In countries less open to the sea and 

 dependent on wood for fuel these changes passed almost unobserved ; 

 here they conspired, with our numerous ports, ample shipping and 

 abundance of coal, to work a complete revolution. Industries are 

 curiously fragile things. Like virtue, they grow in use, but in repose 

 quickly drop to pieces. The return of suitable economic conditions 

 is not enough to revive them. It was not many years before the 

 price of timber rose again, but in the interval the art of growing and 

 marketing woods had been forgotten. Elsewhere the State would 

 have seen to its revival. Here, as I have shown you, the necessary 

 tradition was unhappily wanting. 



Having seen why we are behind other countries in this industry, 

 let us learn from a few examples how science can help the forester. 

 You will bear in mind that abundance of straight timber is the 

 forester's object. He obtains it by exploiting the wonderful adapt- 

 ability of trees to their surroundings. An oak standing alone in the 

 open bears little resemblance to an oak grown in a dense wood. 

 This latter may have a clean stem 60 feet high, while in the other it 

 would be difficult to find 10 feet of straight timber. The same thing 

 holds true of other trees. It is the upward struggle for light of trees 

 growing close together that produces fine timber. It is the forester's 

 task to initiate, watch and control that struggle. 



Let me take the case of a new plantation, in making which a 

 Scots laird had the good sense to give a free hand to the experienced 

 adviser he consulted. AVhat did the adviser do ? First, he examined 

 an adjoining oak wood, J^elieved to be 150 years old. He had a 

 tree felled, counted the annual rings, and found its age to be barely 

 100. Oak, he said, is the tree for this exceptionally good oak soil. 

 How was it to be planted ? When a well-stocked wood is felled the 

 soil is clear of weeds and easy to plant, being covered with the dark 

 leaf mould, which is a precious asset of well-managed forests. But in 

 the case I am describing a thick turf of old grass, very unfriendly to 

 young plants, had to be reckoned with. The land was therefore 

 ploughed and sown with oats and acorns. When the oats were cut 

 the seedling oaks remained uninjured among the stubble. Two years 

 later small plants of beech were sparingly added, and 800 larches to the 

 acre, planted in rows. This plantation has never looked back. What 

 has happened is exactly what was intended to happen. The larches 



Vol. XXIL (No. Ill) f 



