NATIONAL AFFORESTATION 



regret being that almost similar propositions 

 that have been made during past years were 

 not carried out at the time. In the opinion 

 of those who are well competent to judge, the 

 area to be afforested is too small and the 

 period over which the planting is extended 

 too long to be of any practical value in the 

 way of meeting our wants in the near future 

 in the matter of timber supplies. 



With reference to the length of rotation, it 

 would probably have been more consistent 

 with facts had sixty instead of seventy or 

 eighty years been substituted. Most coni- 

 ferous trees increase but little in bulk and are 

 ripe for felling at sixty years in fact, after 

 that age spruce is on the decline for the most 

 important uses to which it will be applied. 

 Hardwoods, on the other hand, leaving aside 

 those specially set apart for pit-props, require 

 a long rotation, and for this very reason are 

 most suitable for State planting, one hundred 

 and fifty or two hundred years being nothing 

 in the lifetime of an oak. Mining timber, 

 however, will arrive at a suitable age for felling 



150 



