66 PRACTICAL FORESTRY 
Before the planting of pine forests in the south- 
western part of France, the country was very un- 
healthy. To-day it is a health resort. In many dis- 
tricts, especially near Rome, the sanitary condition 
has been much improved by the planting of eucalyp- 
tus trees. 
Around dwellings trees prevent the spread of 
disease by arresting the dust. On the particles of 
dust the germs of disease are carried. The purity 
of forest air is proverbial. 
The following is from a paper by Mr. D. E. 
Hutchins, Conservator of Forests, Cape Town: 
“The prudent foreigner, looking across his 
wooded mountains, will tell you that England is rich, 
and can well afford to pay in the future for her pres- 
ent forest improvidence. There is more than this in 
the forest question, and, to my mind, it is quite the 
saddest aspect of it. 
“Great Britain now pays about £20,750,000 an- 
nually for imported wood and forest produce, that 
could be produced equally well in the British Isles. 
Broadly speaking, this wood is paid for by manufac- 
tured goods produced by the labor of the factory 
operative, that physically degraded type of humanity 
one sees in all big manufacturing towns. With the 
destruction of the forests in England have gone the 
stalwart men who once worked in them, to be re- 
