

154 THE STATE AND PRIVATE FORESTS 



method of growth and so forth, but still they have 

 served their purpose. They had been grown at 

 great cost, an extravagant cost, but their owners 

 had borne this cost. When called upon, they offered 

 them to the country willingly, although in many 

 instances the sacrifice has caused a severe wrench. 

 Never again for them will their homes and land be 

 quite the same, with the landmarks with which they 

 grew up from childhood gone for ever. In many 

 cases it is a bare and destroyed country-side they 

 will have to pass the rest of their lives in. 



For this reason, and there are weightier ones from 

 the national standpoint, it would be almost an 

 injustice to deprive a proprietor of the ownership 

 of his land if another way out can be found. For 

 instance, it would be an injustice to take from an 

 owner such part of his estate as could be afforested 

 at present i.e. the best of the winter grazing-land 

 leaving him with the balance consisting of arable 

 land and poorer, high rough ground, the latter, with 

 the winter grazing gone, being almost valueless. 

 The value of the estate would be considerably de- 

 preciated in this way. It would be necessary in 

 fairness to take over arable, plantable and unplant- 

 able land, and the cost involved would be pro- 

 hibitive. 



From the national standpoint, in face of the gigantic 

 debt which we have incurred, and from the financial 

 aspect as it bears on the creation of the new forests, 

 the cost of purchasing the land required for afforesta- 

 tion on any considerable scale is practically out of 

 the question. 



