FORESTRY CONSIDERED AS A KEY INDUSTRY. 31 



4. Forestry Considered as a Key Industry. 

 ( With Plate.) 



By James Fkasf.k. 



The British Science and Key Industries Exhibition held at 

 Kelvin Hall, Glasgow, from Nov. 17 to Dec. 6 1919, gave to 

 the Society an opportunity to put in active operation a line of 

 policy which it now realises to be essential. The exhibitions 

 of the past have too often been directed in such a manner that 

 they appealed to those who were already interested in forestry 

 matters; they had therefore a comparatively narrow sphere of 

 influence. It is not to be inferred that the Society neglected 

 the important duty of endeavouring to influence public feeling, 

 but rather that it now intends to show how the questions 

 dealing with afforestation must be understood by the whole 

 nation. If the result of such endeavours is only, in the first 

 place, to arouse additional criticism, a certain measure of 

 success will have been obtained. Active opposition is much to 

 be preferred to cold indifference, and it may be safely assumed 

 that if a critic wishes to make any real active opposition he 

 will always make it his business to study the matter carefully. 

 The afforestation schemes that have been adopted in recent 

 years in various countries show that, while in every country 

 certain broad resemblances exist in these schemes, there are 

 well-defined problems peculiar to the special circumstances 

 of each. In Britain our main efforts must be directed to show 

 that the creation of forests is essential for the most economic 

 use of our productive powers. It must be shown that timber 

 of value can be produced and that the land used for the 

 production of the timber is under a form of cultivation that 

 ensures the maximum possible permanent value to the country. 

 When the value of the return is estimated it is not sufficient to 

 show that trees grown in a certain manner give a certain return 

 in timber and money value. It is an opinion frequently implied, 

 if not openly expressed, that the greater profit in money value 

 is obtained by the person who buys and markets the crop. 

 Such an attitude can only be assumed by people who are 

 unwilling to go to the same trouble as the buyer of the timber 

 in the marketing of their produce. Further, it must be 

 remembered that the money return of a forest area, in order 



