NEED OF LABOUR 7 



etc., requirements. That the interests of national 

 security, let alone national economy, demand that 

 a certain amount of this material should be grown 

 at home. These have become, amongst the direct 

 utility factors of the forest, perhaps the most 

 important ones. 



The capital invested in forestry is represented by 

 the soil and the trees growing upon it, the former 

 being the fixed and the latter the movable or fluctuat- 

 ing capital. If the management of this capital is 

 bad, as is the case when the working is intermittent 

 and unsystematic, the capital is not only subject to 

 fluctuations, but also depreciates, both crop and 

 soil being subject to this depreciation. When, on the 

 other hand, the woods are managed so as to give 

 equal annual returns or periodic returns and are 

 under regular systematic treatment, the capital either 

 remains the same, yielding an even rate of interest, 

 or, with the improvement of poor waste lands, 

 which follows from placing them under a crop of 

 trees, will increase in amount, this increase affecting 

 both the fixed and movable capital. 



Lastly, we come to the important question of the 

 utility of the forest in its effect on the employment 

 of labour. The labour which depends upon the 

 existence of areas of commercially managed forests 

 in a country may be divided into three categories. 



Firstly, that required for the work connected 

 with the formation of the woods, their subsequent 

 tending and upkeep for once planted, a wood can- 

 not be left to shift for itself, as has been so commonly 

 the case with us in the past, any more than can an 



