DEVELOPMENT OF A LARCH CROP. Ir 
be adapted to the situation in which the trees grow. Thus, in 
mining districts, and on many soils and situations which, although 
suited to its growth, are not at present sufficiently accessible for 
the removal of heavy timber, the crop should be reaped when 
of a size at which it would be saleable for pit-wood, and it 
should be reared with this end in view. Under this system two 
crops could be grown in the time it would take to grow one of 
heavy timber. 
It is obvious that the planting of many of our hill-sides with 
suitable trees would add to the commercial value of any 
property, and to the pecuniary interests of the inhabitants, by 
giving employment to many who, for lack of it, are leaving 
the country. In addition to this, other and very important 
advantages, such as shelter to the surrounding arable and 
pasture land, would be likely to arise from extensive planting ; 
while landowners would ultimately reap immense profits as 
compared with their income from the same land at present. 
The products of the forest are to us positive necessities; yet, 
although we have so much available land suitable for the 
growth of first-class timber, we are mainly indebted to the 
foreigner for our supplies. For these large tracts of land, for 
which there is at present little or no use, there could not be a 
better investment than their conversion into forests, which, if not 
always remunerative to the actual planter, would certainly be so 
to his successors. I have never yet met with an instance in 
which the produce of a forest could not be profitably disposed of ; 
and the more timber there is grown, the more will be sold; while 
with improved methods of management, combined with the 
rearing of species producing first-class timber, the uses of home- 
grown timber will be wider, and an increase in its price certain. 
