AFFORESTATION. 1 73 



governments make provision of every kind to stimulate and 

 protect silviculture, the result being that some 4 millions of the 

 population exist by it and its attendant industries, and land 

 worth 3s. an acre per annum in the Sachsenvi^ald becomes 

 worth 50s. an acre in producing spruce for wood pulp, an 

 industry so perfected that a tree growing at 5 a.m. has been 

 sold in the street in the form of newspapers by 10 o'clock, 

 5 hours later. In Germany there is no hard and fast system 

 of tenure or procedure. Some private forests are under the 

 control of State Forest Officers, others are not ; in certain cases 

 owners are under the obligation to restock felled areas. The 

 advice of State officials is often given free, plants may be 

 provided gratis, or taxation remitted. No aspiring forester 

 lacks facility for training in school and college, forest school, or 

 university. Twenty years ago there were 7 Chairs of Forestry in 

 the one University of Munich. As a result, we find everywhere 

 the most rigid teutonic habits of continuous good management, 

 regular clean fellings, and uniform annual income, so beneficial 

 alike to producer and consumer. German timber is largely of 

 the coniferous varieties, which constitute 87 per cent, of our own 

 imports, and in which the world's shortage is most imminent. 



In France there is a more centralised organisation, with its 

 magnificent School at Nancy. A larger proportion of her 

 forests are hardwood, often managed on the selection system, so 

 well suited to English proclivities and to Indian necessities. 

 There may be greater inequalities in French administration, 

 but here, as in most other European countries, there are 

 admirable results. Natural woods are fast disappearing. In 

 Scandinavia the saw-mills are rather too good for the 

 silviculture. 



Russia, with the chief reserve of European coniferous timber, 

 has so prodigious a domestic consumption, that the balance 

 exported from the Baltic must diminish. 



Meanwhile the wastage in the U. S. A. and Canada, and in 

 Australia, was and is incalculable. Mr Roosevelt inaugurated 

 a serious conservation policy, much of it necessarily of a 

 superficial character ; and in the far and lively West a forest 

 officer's main recommendation sometimes consists in being a 

 dead shot. 



Our own supplies are drawn almost entirely from abroad, our 

 home grown timber being limited in quantity, and through 



