INAUGURATION OF NEAV CHAIR OF FORESTRY AT CIRENCESTER. 189 



shooting grounds. It is, no doubt, difficult to estimate the actual 

 returns yielded by these lands, but I feel sure that I am within the 

 mark when I say it is less than one shilling an acre all round. 

 Some of the lands may yield up to half-a-crown, but enormous 

 areas yield considerably below a shilling, even down to threepence 

 an acre. We may safely say, then, that there is no lack of land 

 obtainable at reasonable and even low rates. As regards the 

 climate, there is practically nothing better to be desired, as far as 

 the production of timber is concerned, however unpleasant it may 

 be in other respects. We have, generally speaking, mild winters 

 and cool summers. Of rain we have plenty, often too much, while 

 snow and ice are not nearly so frequent as in other northern 

 European countries. Unfortunately of gales and strong winds we 

 have more than a fair share, but with proper management their 

 injurious effect upon forest growth can be considerably reduced. 

 On the whole our climate, at any rate up to the centre of Scotland, 

 though it may not be equal to that of a great portion of France, 

 compares very favourably with that of Germany, and there is 

 absolutely no reason, in this respect, why we should not grow as 

 good timber here as is done in Germany. Certainly, our climate 

 is considerably more favourable than that of Norway, Sweden, and 

 North Russia, whence we import some 6 million tons of timber a year. 

 If home-grown timber has hitherto been considered inferior to timber 

 imported from those three countries, it is due, not to the climate, 

 but to the manner in which it has been grown. Conifers have been 

 too heavily thinned while young, so that they yielded knotty timber 

 with broad annual rings. Only let us grow our timber in the 

 manner followed in France and Germany, the countries which share 

 the honour of having developed the science and art of forestry, and 

 we shall produce the same quality of Scotch pine (the red deal of 

 the Baltic) and Norway spruce (the white deal of the Baltic) as 

 that now imported into this country. It is the non-observance 

 in this country of good sylviculture which is at fault, and not the 

 climate. As regards hardwoods, and especially oak, it is asserted 

 by leading timber merchants, that the quality of British-grown 

 timber is actually superior to that imj)orted from the Continent, but 

 that the latter comes to us in better shaped, cleaner pieces, which 

 again indicates faulty sylviculture in this country. On the whole, 

 there is no doubt in my mind that we can produce just as good 

 timber in this country as that now imported from other European 

 countries, provided we put our shoulders to the wheel, and teach 



