CHAPTEE VIII 



ADVANTAGES OF AFFORESTATION 



AFFORESTATION is essentially a national ques- 

 tion, and as to profits, whether these are 

 derived directly from timber sales or indirectly 

 in the matter of hygiene, shelter, or improving 

 the agricultural value of the adjoining lands, 

 it will be recognised by all that to make trees 

 grow where heath and gorse now thrive is 

 deserving of equal credit with the " making 

 of two blades of grass grow where one grew 

 before." 



No doubt, and rightly so, the planting of 

 extensive woodlands will, irrespective of every 

 other consideration, be carried out in such a 

 way as to produce the best financial results. 

 But not only from a strictly economic stand- 

 point, as pointed out in the chapter on finan- 

 cial returns from tree-planting, but in an 

 hygienic sense, as affording shelter for farm 



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