BRITISH FORESTRY 

 PAST AND FUTURE 



BRITISH landowners have always taken much interest 

 in tree planting, but it has been the tree (arboriculture) 

 rather than the wood (silviculture) that has been the object 

 of their attention. Enthusiasm reached a high pitch in the 

 second quarter of last century, when it found expression in 

 the form of organized expeditions, chiefly to North America, 

 though partly also to China and Japan, for the purpose of 

 introducing species whose merits had attracted the atten- 

 tion of travellers. Almost continuously from 1823 to 1834 

 David Douglas was engaged in collecting seeds for the 

 Horticultural Society, to be followed, under the same 

 auspices, by Theodor Hertweg and Robert Fortune. The 

 latter worked in China, a country which has recently 

 received much attention from Wilson, Ward, and Farrer. 

 In 1850 an association dispatched John Jeffrey to collect 

 in the region west of the Rocky Mountains, and the minutes 

 of this body, preserved at the Royal Botanic Garden in 

 Edinburgh, are eloquent of the interest with which the 

 results of the expedition were awaited. 



These definitely organized expeditions, supplemented by 

 the work of private collectors, resulted in the introduction 

 to this country of most of the exotic trees, chiefly conifers, 

 which now adorn our parks and woodlands. Many species 

 have no more than a botanical and aesthetic interest, but 

 some are of great commercial value, notably the Douglas 

 fir, which, although it has some limitations, is capable of 

 yielding results in this country much beyond those of any 

 other single species. 



In the laying out of ornamental plantations, and in the 

 management of individual trees, British landlords and 

 foresters are unsurpassed. But it is not too much to say 

 that until the closing decade of last century they had only 



