INAUGURATION OF NEW CHAIR OF FORESTRY AT CIRENCESTER. 191 



choice is not limited by the laws of the country, to determine in 

 each case what these objects shall be, and it then becomes the duty 

 of the forester to see that they are realised to the fullest extent, 

 and in the most economic manner. Here you have the fundamental 

 principle in a nutshell. In these islands nearly the whole of the 

 woodlands belong to private proprietors. They desire, in the 

 majority of cases, to have the woods so arranged that they either 

 lend themselves to landscape beauty, or to the rearing of game, or 

 to the production of a particular kind of produce required in the 

 management of estates. Either one or more, or sometimes all these 

 objects, have to be kept in view. Where this is the case, the 

 economic working is sometimes altogether out of the question, or, 

 at any rate, considerably interfered with. And yet, even in such 

 cases the objects of the proprietor may be realised, and the woods 

 can be made to yield, if not a full, at any rate a fair return, while 

 the proprietor must put down any deficiency in the return against 

 his pleasure, or against shooting rents, or the benefits derived by 

 the rest of the estate. 



Economic Forestry. 



Where, however, the manager is not hampered in this way, and 

 where economic forestry is aimed at, as it would generally be in the 

 case of extended afforestation of waste lands, the question of finance 

 would stand in the foreground. The forester must decide what to 

 plant, how to plant, and how to treat his woods, so as to realise the 

 highest possible net returns. The answers to all these questions 

 involve practically a treatise on sylviculture and forest management, 

 which your Professor will no doubt propound to you. On this 

 occasion I can only offer a few general remarks. The financial 

 results ma}' be said to depend chiefly on (1) the soil you have to 

 deal with, (2) the average annual production of the several species, 

 (3) the value per cubic foot of timber, (i) the cost of planting and 

 subsequent treatment, (5) the degree to which the trees are exposed 

 to injury, and last, but not least, the rate of interest on the money 

 invested in forestry. 



Rate of Interest. 



It has been said in public by an eminent botanist, " that no 

 British landowner will invest money in forestry unless he is assured 



