THE STATE AND PRIVATE OWNERS 239 



a necessity if its landscape is to be made attractive, and 

 the land a pleasant place to live in, for only the very 

 poor or very ignorant live amid ugly surroundings. 



Shelter and ornamental planting is generally supposed 

 to have no direct value to any one but the owner of the 

 land, and for this reason one seldom hears any suggestion 

 made that the man who plants a specimen or hedgerow 

 tree, shelter belt, or clump is adding to the wealth or well- 

 being of the nation. Yet in most cases it is impossible 

 to plant judiciously, whether on a large or small scale, 

 without benefiting the country at large. There may be 

 districts in which trees are already in excess of those 

 actually required for ornament and shelter, and planting 

 may not there constitute a virtue, although it is too rare to 

 be considered a vice. But in a bleak, wind-swept country 

 every man who plants a tree is doing something to 

 convert that country into a comparatively sheltered 

 and attractive land, and what is of more importance 

 in the eyes of most people, he is increasing its capital 

 value at the same time. 



Take any farm or estate in Great Britain, and one finds 

 its value, other things being equal, in direct proportion 

 to the size and quality of the timber it contains, not 

 merely because this timber is a marketable commodity 

 when cut, but chiefly on account of the shelter and 

 natural beauty it affords, and the increased fertility of the 

 pasture and arable land which it surrounds. It is some- 

 times said that well-sheltered land is worth from 50 to 

 100 per cent, more than bleak and exposed ground. 

 Probably the exact increase in value cannot be put into 

 figures, but no one doubts that the increase is there, 

 and in the event of the land being sold or let, its value 

 becomes apparent. For stock-raising it is a well-known 

 fact that shelter belts of some kind are indispensable, 

 not merely for the shelter they afford to cattle, but for 



