196 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



under all local conditions. Practically all the data on which 

 reliable calculations of this sort could be based are awanting 

 with us. There is not a single completed record of the 

 financial outcome of any tract of forest land in the country. 

 And besides, the results must vary greatly, no matter how good 

 or how uniform themanagement may,be over so vast a tract as nine 

 millions, or even six millions, of acres in a country like our own. 



Accidents such as gales, snow-break, fires, insect attacks, and 

 fungous diseases, have all to be reckoned with; but with a rising 

 and extending market there seems no reason to doubt that 

 paying crops of timber can now be grown in the country, and 

 as a general indication of the final outcome the Commissioners' 

 figures are no doubt quite sufficient. What must have the 

 greatest influence on the final financial result will be the 

 selection of the correct species for each locality, and the 

 adoption of the most economical method of efficiently stocking 

 the ground. In any case, as a question of national policy, the 

 promotion of afforestation would seem to be desirable, even 

 though the financial outcome should prove to be much less 

 favourable than that anticipated. 



When railways are made through new parts of the country, 

 or through new territories, the promoters and chief shareholders 

 of such concerns seldom look for, and as seldom get, any large 

 dividends on the money they invest in the undertaking. But 

 very often the shareholders have an indirect interest in the 

 success of the railways ; they often hold, or have an interest in, 

 the surrounding lands. If new industries are created and 

 fostered by means of better transport facilities, and if the land 

 becomes more valuable in consequence, they reap considerable 

 indirect benefit. In the same way, if the State, by promoting 

 and fostering afforestation, assists to start new industries, and 

 thus to increase and ameliorate the condition of the rural 

 population, then the benefit both to the State and to the 

 community generally is at least equal in importance to any 

 direct pecuniary gain which may accrue from the working of 

 the forests. 



What the State might Do, and what might be Done 

 BY THE Private Owner. 



We may assume that a Forestry Board, or some suitably 

 constituted and responsible authority, will be created to supervise 



