130 ENGLISH WOODLANDS 



money-making management strictly based on 

 capital and interest calculations, but considers 

 it its duty to so manage the forests as a patri- 

 mony belonging to the whole nation that the 

 present generation may be benefited by the 

 highest possible usufruct in satisfying its wants 

 and deriving the protection which the forest ren- 

 ders, and to future generations may be secured 

 at least as large usufruct of the same kind." 



It is a fair argument, that the absence of a 

 financial profit in a State undertaking cannot 

 be accepted as a conclusive proof of failure, 

 for there may be indirect benefits of great value 

 which cannot be expressed in figures. A battle- 

 ship may be sold for one-tenth of the original 

 cost, but there is no loss of nine-tenths. That 

 sum is not a loss, but the cost of the advantages 

 which the State derived from the possession of 

 the battle-ship. Money spent on woods which 

 fail to grow is a loss, but the cost of diminishing 

 the national dependence on foreigners for timber 

 and of establishing a healthy population on 

 lands now waste is not fairly called a loss. 



Still, it is obvious that before commencing a 

 large system of State afforestation a prudent 

 statesman would wish to have an approximate 

 estimate of the cost per acre. 



