PREFACE 



THE pressing need of afforestation and the 

 lifelong interest that I have taken in the 

 subject have caused me to record my ex- 

 perience and observations. The Scottish 

 laird's advice to his son, " Be aye stikin* in 

 a tree, Jock; it'll be growin' when ye're 

 sleeping" was never more appropriate than 

 at the present time, when the axe of the 

 woodman should give place to the spade of 

 the planter. The cultivation of -timber where 

 formerly heath and gorse abounded is equally 

 laudable with the making of two blades of 

 grass grow where only one grew before. 



