MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. M 



relative to agricultural development by the question, What 

 measures should be adopted to arrest the destruction 

 which has taken place in several localities of woods which 

 are private property, which threatens to cut off the supply 

 of wood in such localities, and to produce an injurious 

 influence on the climate ; and how far does it come within 

 the legitimate duty of the State to watch over the conser- 

 vation of the forests, and aid in the management of these 

 in the provinces of the kingdom ? 



A Committee appointed at that meeting to take the 

 whole subject into consideration submitted that a better 

 knowledge of the value of woods, and of the treatment 

 which should be given to them, should be secured by the 

 establishment of Forest Schools ; that, as a branch of social 

 economy, there should be introduced an improved forest 

 economy ; that in the several lans, districts, or counties of 

 the country, there should be organised a proper game and 

 forest service, not only for the protection of the whole of 

 the forests belonging to the Crown, but, by friendly co- 

 operation, to help private proprietors of forests in the 

 division and protection of their forest territory ; that the 

 destruction of growing trees should be considered a misde- 

 meanour injurious, and punishable by fine ; and that all 

 burning of woods with a view to agriculture in moors and 

 outlying territory should be prohibited, as the conversion 

 of such woodland into arable land and meadows in connec- 

 tion with the clearing of tracts of woodland by private 

 proprietors must, in its consequence, in a certain way 

 diminish the future growth of wood. 



The subject came under the consideration of Parliament, 

 and the Senators who discussed the question in the Parlia- 

 ment of 1854 agreed generally with several of the views 

 advanced, and considering it competent to the State to 

 restrict the power of private proprietors in the disposal of 

 their woods, on the ground that this was necessary to 

 secure the reproduction of forests ; they could not avoid 

 seeing the injurious results which were following the bad 



