TREE-PLANTING BY THE STATE 



necessities; but, unfortunately, in this country 

 commercial forestry is but little understood in 

 fact, may be described as an unknown industry. 



Extensive plantations of from a thousand 

 to several thousand acres each, and in com- 

 pact blocks, are required, for it is only in 

 dealing with such areas that the planting, 

 tending, thinning, and conversion of the 

 timber can be most economically and pro- 

 fitably carried out. From the purely economic 

 point of view, the many small plantations 

 dotted over the face of our country are worse 

 than useless, though exceptions might be 

 noted, especially in Scotland, where a number 

 of woods have been planted and managed on 

 a commercial basis, and from which much of 

 the timber for carrying on the war has been 

 procured. 



With compact blocks of forest 2,000 to 

 4,000 acres in extent, and with timber crops 

 of mainly the same species in each, a contin- 

 uity of supplies could be guaranteed, which 

 under existing circumstances is quite out of 

 the question. In many outlying districts all 

 D 49 



