408 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



is, that by the time a system should be getting into well-oi-ganised 

 shape, its chief character is an entire absence of any organisation 

 or shape whatever ! 



It is undoubtedly true that we have lost much through the 

 paucity of our state forests, for had they been present in 

 greater numbers the regrettable condition of many of our private 

 woodlands would not now have existed. This would have been 

 a great gain to the country in general, but if the same improve- 

 ments could have been brought about by some other means than 

 the extension of govei'nment forests, the gain would have been 

 still greater. The experiences of all nations, however, tend to 

 show that no other means have ever had much effect. It is true 

 that we have always managed to maintain our position in other 

 departments with the very minimum of state interference and 

 example, and undoubtedly the independent si)ii"it which has thus 

 been developed has stood us in good stead in carrying us over 

 many difficulties ; but the peculiar conditions and circumstances 

 consequent to the ownership of forests all point to the state as 

 being in a moi'e favourable position to make the best use of land 

 stocked with trees than the private individual can be. It is a 

 great question, and one whose discussion in all its various rami- 

 fications would lead us far beyond our limits of time ; suffice it 

 to say, that the experiences of nations and the investigations of 

 political economists point to the conclusion that, although the 

 state proves a bad farmer, it makes an excellent forester. 



But, apart altogether from the purely economic bearings of the 

 case, many circumstances may be present to compel a state to 

 interfere with forest management in order to secure the public 

 welfare. Extensive denudation near the headwaters of rivers 

 has often been followed by destructive floods, afl^ecting, not the 

 owners of the cleared areas, but the inhabitants of districts 

 situated, it may be, hundreds of miles away. This has been 

 strikingly exemplified in many parts of Austria, where the 

 wholesale removal of trees from large areas in the Tyrol without 

 any steps being taken to restock them, has resulted in widespread 

 inundations and immense loss of life and property. The cause 

 of these Austrian floods has, within recent years, been made the 

 subject of government inquiry, with the result that the state has 

 purchased large tracts of private land in the Tyrolese valleys in 

 order to preserve the existing forests, and restore those which 

 have been spoiled. America can furnish many cases of flooding 



