Conifers 



This is not because we do not use wood. On the 

 contrary, we import not only wood to the value of 

 ;^32,326,ii7 (1907), but about ^10,000,000 of wood- 

 pulp or of paper made for the most part from wood- 

 pulp. 



Nor is it because the land is in any way unsuitable 

 for timber. The Royal Commission which has recently 

 sat upon this question estimates that there is 9,000,000 

 acres of quite suitable land, chiefly *' rough mountain- 

 land used for grazing." This estimate is probably far 

 below the real area, but unfortunately all estimates are at 

 present just guesses. If the Botanical Survey of Britain 

 had been carried through, it would have been possible to 

 state exactly the precise area of possible forest land. 



Dry heather moor, when not above a certain altitude, 

 is generally well adapted to conifers, and there are many 

 stony and barren-looking hills which are able also to 

 grow good trees. But such plantations must not be 

 above a certain altitude, which varies in different dis- 

 tricts according to the heights of the highest hills in 

 the neighbourhood. 



Does forestry then not pay in this country ? The 

 best British authorities have shown that land producing 

 only 5s. per acre as grazing ground for sheep can be 

 made to return los. per acre when planted. Then one 

 begins to wonder why it is that there are so few planta- 

 tions, and why private enterprise has not grown again 

 the great Silva Caledonica of ancient times. 



The answer is, however, perfectly simple and adequate. 

 Forestry as usually conducted is most uncertain. It 

 cannot unhappily be denied that the scientific side of it 

 has been grossly neglected in Britain, and too often 

 dangerous errors and wrong practice have led to ruinous 

 losses. 



But let the reader suppose himself to be twenty-one 

 years of age and to have succeeded in 1909 to a large 



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