138 THE DEVELOPMENT OF BRITISH FORESTRY 



landscape, and the wealth of the country in one operation. 

 The imagination of such economists, when once roused, 

 is often allowed to run riot, and the land, which now 

 presents to the eye a landscape of variegated browns, 

 purple, greens and greys of heather, bracken and grass, 

 is in imagination clothed from summit to base with 

 serried ranks of pine, spruce, or larch, or the bosky 

 billows of beech or chestnut. The Harz Mountains or 

 the Black Forest are reproduced on every mountain 

 range in the British Isles, and the land now given over 

 to sheep, grouse, or deer devoted to timber production. 

 The lonely shepherd and his dog, who now watch over 

 1000 acres or more of mountain, become a memory of the 

 past, and the hum of the saw-mill, and the rusticity of 

 forest villages bring untold wealth to the nation, and the 

 simple life to its inhabitants. 



The process by which this entrancing picture is to be 

 produced is equally simple and devoid of difficulties. 

 The land is to be acquired — whether by buying, begging, 

 borrowing, or stealinsf matters little to the enthusiast. 

 Then, as if by a merciful dispensation of Providence, 

 there exists a vast army of unemployed in every town 

 and city. Disregarding for the moment troublesome 

 details, this army of unemployed, of various ages, sizes, 

 and degrees of incompetency, is to be spread out into a 

 thin multi-coloured line at the end of a mountain range, 

 provided with spades and young trees, and given the 

 order to march. In front of the army lies the bare waste 

 and barren rock of a desolate land. Behind it is left 

 a promising young forest. If the army is too small or 

 the funds are limited, squares or sections are divided 

 off in the manner most convenient to the planter, and 

 in place of planting the whole, large plantations or 

 individual forests are formed instead of forest regions. 



Another side of the mental vision succeeding the above 



