4 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



verdure refreshes the eye during a daylight journey from 

 Edinburgh to London than in one from Paris to Marseilles. 



"Green fields of England, wheresoe'er 

 Across the watery waste we fare, 

 Your image in our hearts we bear, 

 Green fields of England, everywhere." 



And so richly is that image umbraged with hedgerow timber 

 and ornamental planting (economically the two most wasteful 

 methods of tree culture), that we think of Britain as a woodland 

 country. Inexorable statistics shatter that delusion. Compare, 

 in Table C, the relative woodland area of France and the United 

 Kingdom. 



C. Proportion of Woodland to Total Area. 



Deficit on Woodlands. 



Very few, indeed, were the British landowners who could 

 show a profit on the year's management of their woods. Were 

 it possible to ascertain the facts relating to the whole 3,000,000 

 acres, it could not be doubted that they would show a very 

 heavy deficit. They had the facts relating to the Crown 

 woodlands in this country. The balance-sheet of the Office of 

 Woods and Forests for 1903-4 showed, under the heading of 

 "Royal Forests and Woodlands," a revenue of only ;^32,48i. 



