XIX 



grave anxiety, Irom the failure of the for- 

 ests near the lines to produce timber 

 suitable for this purpose. 



As it is well to approach a subject 

 such as this from its beginning, I may be 

 pardoned for offering for consideration 

 some proi)ositions that have passed into 

 axioms: — 



A well managed forest produces a large 

 amount of timber, not for this year only, 

 or next, or even for a generation, but for 

 all time. A constant outjjut of timber of 

 tke besit quality of its kind is ensured for 

 •ever by methods that have been usual for 

 centuries, in many countries where fores- 

 try has been a profession. In all newly- 

 inhabited countries, and in barbarous 

 countries, the wants of the moment are 

 supreme, the trees are abundant, each 

 man takes what he wishes for use, and 

 destroys wholesale, without let or hind- 

 rance. After a time it comes to be re- 

 cognised that a tree that is the product 

 ■of the State soil for a century belongs, in 

 some measure to the (Toveinment, and 

 without any view to the future, the State, 

 for the purpose of present revenue, li- 

 censes comi)anies, or individuals, to cut 

 down for tlieir own profit, and to destroy 

 the forest, so long as the.y pay the fee de- 

 manded by the State for that right. Then 

 with regard to fire, it is generally looked 

 upon as impolitic, in new countries, to 

 restrict too harshly, either its u^e, or its 

 .abuse. In forestry, the two greatest ene- 

 mies are fire and the license-holder. 



State forests should l)e defined by 

 marked bounds, and defended from the 

 ravages of thieves and fire by forest offi- 

 cers, and by fireguards. In a new coun- 

 try statistics should be gathered to fix 

 the best season for felling each kind of 

 tree, the proper method for seasoning the 

 timber, the period required for the vari- 

 ous trees to reach a growth suitable for 

 the purposes for which they may be want- 

 ed, and for the trees to reach maturity; 

 also to obtain information as to the uses 

 for which each timber is best suited, the 

 defects it is subject to, and the diseases 

 to which the trees are liable. Koads suit- 

 able for the removal of timber should be 

 made, and the forest divided into blocks, 

 of which one at a time is open for felling. 

 After these preliminaries the trees in a 

 block should be marked in consecutive 

 nuinbeis, anrl tlie issue of licenses to enter 

 the forest to cut tracks and to fell indis- 

 criminately is stopped. Trees are only 

 allowed to be felled in their season. Ap- 

 plicants for timber are taken by a ranger 

 to a tree or trees of the kind they require, 

 and told the price, say. Is. 4d.i or 3d. a 

 •cubic foot, or trees are sold by auction, 

 as they stand, at the estimated quantity 

 •of timber in them. After the purchase, it 

 is to the interest of the purchaser to use 

 lip the whole of tlie tree, and not to buy 



a tree with 500ft. of useful timber in it 

 for the purpose of cutting 10ft. out of the 

 middle. 



Under the licence eyetem a man will 

 wander for miles through the forest in 

 search of timber, cutting tracks, trying, 

 and even felling, trees and leaving tliem 

 until his fancy is suited, thus damaging 

 ten or a hundred times as much of the i)ro- 

 perty of the State as the timber he uses is 

 worth; besides leaving behind him the 

 rest of the trunk, and all the branches and 

 tops to cumber the ground and pievent the 

 growth of young trees, to form a harbour 

 and breeding ground for insects and fungi 

 that are enemies of the forest, and to add 

 greatly to the destructiveness of any fire 

 that may occur. At first, a systematic 

 treatment of the forest is looked upon by 

 all concerned in the timbei- industry as 

 fatal to their interests, but in every coun- 

 try in which it has been tried, it has been 

 found to convert an evanescent industry 

 into a permanent one, to imi)rove the 

 status and profits of the worker, and to 

 form the source of a very laigc State 

 revenue. This paper is written without 

 works of reference, but quoting from my 

 paper of 1893 : — 



"Norway, at that time, exported tini'- 

 ber to the value of .i:2,00(),0()() annual- 

 ly, while the profits from some 

 of the European State forests 

 were, annuall.y: — Sweden, .t21,0()0; 

 Austria, .ii90,obO; France, X'1,000,000; 

 Prussia, .iil ,500,000." 



Further details of methodical forestry 

 are, that the forests should be worked in 

 blocks of such dimensions as are suited to 

 the rate of growth of the timber, and in 

 such a way that the trees that are left 

 shelter the .young giowth, and that the 

 prevailing winds shall scatter the seeds 

 from the standing i)ortions on to the clear- 

 ed parts. This is sui)j)]emented by hand- 

 sowing and planting — a ])art of the pay of 

 the ranger or bailiff being for tiees suc- 

 cessfully planted out from the nursery at 

 his cottage. As the trees grow, if neces- 

 sary, they are cut out as poles, and the 

 whole of the new part of the forest is kept 

 growing at the gieatest speed possible, and 

 from the same influences', jxrodiu-ing su- 

 perior timber. When the end of the for- 

 est is reached, the trees on the first section, 

 will have arrived at maturity, and thus 

 the profits are kept always at the highest 

 state. On the other hand, under the li- 

 cence system, every man who goes into the 

 forest destroys inan.y, many times as muck 

 as he uses, the tops and refuse, anrl the 

 cutting of tracks destioy saplings, and 

 make an entry for fire and cattle, which 

 still farther increase the damage done by 

 the timber getter, and in a very short 

 time, perhaps 50, say 60 to a 100 years, not 



