NATIONAL ASPECTS OF FORESTRY 13 



and resulted in a definite recognition of the fact that forests 

 were the heritage of the nation, producers of one of the 

 chief necessities of industrial development, and could not 

 be neglected or destroyed at the whim or pleasure of the in- 

 dividuals who happened to possess them for the time being. 



If the above premises are correct, it follows that the 

 value of forests in any country must vary with the density 

 of population, the character of the soil, and the extent 

 to which timber can be imported from abroad at a cheap 

 or a cheaper price than it can be produced at home. 

 Food is a more important commodity in any country 

 than timber, and fuel comes very near it as a necessity of 

 life. A thickly populated country, therefore, with a soil 

 or soils adapted for food production, and an abundant 

 supply of coal, would naturally regard agriculture as a 

 more important branch of rural economy than forestry. 

 The ease with which timber could be imported from 

 abroad would also tend to put home forestry at a discount, 

 and it is not difficult to find excuses for the unconcern 

 with which forest destruction in England, and the mining 

 and manufacturing parts of Scotland and Wales, has been 

 regarded for the last century or two by the general public. 

 Less excuse, however, can be found, perhaps, for its neglect 

 in the north of Scotland, North Wales, or Ireland, in all 

 of which large areas exist unfitted for tillage by reason 

 of soil and climate. But even here extensive grazing has 

 utilised the land in some measure for centuries back, 

 and it cannot be said to be entirely wasted. 



In a thinly populated country, with a soil and climate 

 unfitted for agriculture or grazing, and in which fuel can 

 only be supplied from forests, the importance of the latter 

 in the political economy of the country is much greater, 

 especially when the surplus production can be disposed of 

 in a profitable market. The same may be said of a 

 country almost entirely depending for its timber upon 



