‘LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY TO ACQUIRE A TIMBER ESTATE, 103 
but few of the prominent advocates of extended sylviculture belong 
to the landed class, a forest on the lines suggested would at once 
afford the opportunity of putting the cynics to silence. And, 
lastly, I see no reason why the venture should not be a practical 
illustration of “philanthropy and five per cent.” If we are sincere 
—as I believe we are—in advising landlords under certain circum- 
stances to invest their thousands in tree-planting, we cannot refuse 
to contribute to a scheme which offers everyone the chance of 
supporting his opinions to any reasonable extent from a pound up- 
wards. If a feasible scheme is submitted to the country, and if it 
should happen that it is not heartily taken up, it will at all events 
have served one good purpose, in exposing the insincerity of the 
arguments of those who advise others to do what they would not 
do themselves. 
The scheme, then, that I would beg to submit to the con- 
sideration of this meeting, and to all friends of Forestry, is as 
follows :—A few men who heartily approve of the proposal 
should, formally or informally, associate themselves together 
to ascertain where an area of land suitable for sylviculture 
is to be found, and when such land is found, and the selling 
price ascertained, a company, registered under the Limited 
Liability Companies Acts, should be formed to purchase it and 
to work it as a timber estate. The price of the shares should 
be £1 each, so that all may have the fullest opportunity of 
participating in the undertaking. No doubt the shareholders will 
have to wait some years for their dividends, but as I should hope 
that no one will invest so much as to seriously affect his income, 
this objection can have no particular weight. The argument that 
the returns will be so long deferred as in some cases to confer no 
benefit upon the originators of the scheme, applies, of course, to all 
tree-planting undertakings, and if the scheme were to hang fire 
from such a consideration as this, we need not expect the existing 
area under wood belonging to private individuals ever to be materi- 
ally extended. And even although many years may elapse before 
returns come in, it only puts the case on a level with many other 
conditions that people enter into voluntarily. Life insurance, for 
instance, is a case in point, where, as is well known, we voluntarily 
enter into an agreement to pay a certain sum annually in order that 
we—or, what is more usual, our heirs—may ultimately benefit from 
our self-sacrifice. 
