40 

 PROTECTION OF THE FORESTS. 



The limited extent of the Natal forests makes it all the more necessary to protect 

 them ; we have so little wood that we cannot afford to waste any. So that one of the 

 primary aims of a well-considered scheme of forestry must be the conservation of the 

 forests, especially the timber forests, which are the most valuable both from an economic 

 and a climatic point of view. It is now recognised that State intervention has to be 

 resorted to for the purpose. The work of forestry is of such a protracted nature, requiring 

 to be carried uniformly from generation to generation to ensure the best results, that it 

 falls within the province of the State, which alone is fitted to undertake it on a large 

 scale. Forests should be looked upon as a trust which the Government holds for the 

 general benefit. They have, as Tassy points out, a character of collective utility, not 

 only in regulating the .influence of the atmosphere upon the soil, but also as a source 

 of material products ; and owing to the great disproportion between their utility and 

 money value, the interest of an individual owner to preserve them is much less than 

 the general interest. Experience teaches that individuals cannot be depended upon to 

 maintain the forests of a country and keep up the supply of timber, and that the 

 alienation of forests means their ruin sooner or later, if not their entire disappearance. 



Some of the European countries have been engaged for a century or more in the 

 work of reclaiming forest estates, which they had blindly allowed to be frittered away. 

 In some cases, it has been at first a tedious work ; but out here we have, at any rate, the 

 advantage of being able to profit by the experience that has been already gained, often at no 

 small cost. The broad principles of forestry, based as they are on natural laws, remain 

 the same all the world over, and do not require much modification to be adapted to special 

 needs. And besides, during the last few years, the introduction of systematic treatment 

 in the forests of the Cape Colony, which resemble ours in many respects, has been pro- 

 ductive of lessons which may help to smooth away some of the difficulties that would 

 otherwise have been encountered here at the start. 



The conservation of forests is not the only object of forestry, and it is not attained, 

 as some would suppose, by reducing the supply of timber. On the contrary, the yield of 

 systematically managed forests is increased notably, and the largest possible regular supply 

 of timber is derived after a few years. The work of forestry may be said to combine 

 (a) conservation of existing forests ; (&) their most profitable management ; (c) the 

 creation and management of artificial forests. The chief aim is to steadily improve the 

 conditions of each forest, and to never cut more than the annual production, by natural 

 or artificial means, will justify. Sir Dietrich Brandis, late Inspector General of Forests 

 to the Government of India, gives in a few words a summary of the requisite work : 

 ~" Forest management which aims at these objects requires the following measures as 



