By FOREST CULTURE AND 
likely to increase, except through forces which would 
initiate a new organic creation, or, at all events, bring 
the present phase in the world’s history to a close ; 
but while the area of land does not increase, mankind, 
in spite of deadly plagues, of the horrors of warfare, 
and of unaccountable oppressions and miseries, which 
more extended education and the highest standard 
of morals can only reduce or subdue — mankind, in 
spite of all this, increases numerically so rapidly that 
before long more space must be gained for its very 
existence. Where can we look for-the needful space ? 
Is it in the tropic zones, with their humid heat and 
depressing action on our energies? Or is it in the 
frigid zone, which sustains but a limited number of 
forms of organism ? Or is it rather in the temperate 
and particularly our warm temperate zone, that we 
have to offer the means of subsistence to our fellow- 
men, closely located as they in future must be ? But 
this formation of dense and at the same time also 
thriving settlements, how is it to be carried out, 
unless, indeed, we place not merely our soil at the 
disposal of our coming brethren, but offer with this 
soil also the indispensable requisite of a vigorous 
industrial life, among which requisites the easy and 
inexpensive access to a sufficiency of wood stands 
well-nigh foremost. 
I may be met with the reply that the singular 
rapidity of the growth of Australian trees is such as 
to bring within the scope of each generation all that 
is required, as far as wood is concerned; and as a 
corollary it would follow that each generation should 
take advantage of the facility thus brought locally 
within its reach. I can assure this audience that 
