BRITISH FORESTRY. 97 



16. British Forestry,^ 



The Government has now made a start in promoting the 

 establishment of scientific forestry among British industries, 

 by establishing demonstration areas and making grants to 

 educational bodies for purposes of instruction. The exhortation 

 to " Go on ! " which for the space of a generation was all the 

 response that could be got out of our rulers by those who tried 

 to rouse them to a sense of the necessity for action, has now 

 been exchanged for the far more exhilarating " Come on ! " 

 A beginning has been made in the right direction ; but before 

 the Treasury can be persuaded to sanction further outlay, and 

 before private owners will be inclined to regard tree-planting as 

 an investment instead of a luxury, they must be satisfied as to 

 the reason why the existing woods of the United Kingdom, 

 taken as a whole, are unremunerative ; nay, more — why the 

 outlay on the Crown forests, and on most privately owned 

 woodlands, largely exceeds the revenue. If there be a heavy 

 deficit on the three million and odd acres now growing trees of 

 sorts in the United Kingdom, what might it not amount to 

 were that area of plantations doubled or trebled .'' 



The objection most commonly raised against forestry enter- 

 prise in the United Kingdom is based upon unsuitability of 

 climate, owing to the storms which sweep over these islands ; 

 yet it cannot be shown that atmospheric disturbance is more 

 violent or frequent here than it is in the United States, Canada, 

 Scandinavia, and other timber-producing countries. It is true 

 that we have an exposed seaboard, whereon profitable forestry 

 is impossible, in greater proportion than these countries; but 

 all our inland and mountainous regions, up to the 1500 feet 

 level, were once covered with dense primeval forest, which was 

 cleared away to make room for pasture and agriculture. It is also 

 true that British woodlands, such as they are, suffer more from 

 wind damage than Continental forests do, not because our 

 gales are more frequent or furious than elsewhere, but chiefly 

 for three reasons : — 



I. Our woods are almost invariably laid out in comparatively 



^ Reprinted by permission from the Times. 

 VOL. XXII. PART I. G 



