246 THE DEVELOPMENT OF BRITISH FORESTRY 



government, and has been instrumental in adding some 

 150,000 acres to the woodlands of Jutland within the 

 last fifty years. Somewhat similar work is carried out in 

 Holland, Schleswig-Holstein, etc., proving that a bleak 

 country can be transformed into a sheltered land within 

 a comparatively short time. 



With schemes of the kind described above on foot, a 

 marked improvement in the landscape of many districts 

 would result in the course of a few years. Shelter belts, 

 clumps and woods of two or three acres in extent, if 

 planted with wind-resisting species as the main crop, like 

 silver fir, sycamore, Corsican pine, beech, ash, etc., would 

 produce commercial timber of some value, and probably 

 sufficient to meet the requirements of many rural districts 

 in fencing, firewood, rough-hewn timber, and wood for 

 implements and other articles. 



It is, perhaps, not so easy to say very much in favour of 

 hedgerow trees alone from an economic point of view, for 

 they are not only expensive to plant, but their existence 

 on arable land undoubtedly does a certain amount of 

 harm. But on pasture land in the south, midlands, and 

 west of England, one species has certainly put hundreds 

 of thousands of pounds into the pocket of the landowner, 

 not only without doing the farmer much harm, but in 

 some cases a good deal of good. This species is the 

 English elm, a tree which has renewed itself for many 

 centuries from suckers, and forms one of the most pictur- 

 esque and characteristic features in most districts in the 

 southern part of England. But with judgment and skill 

 even hedgerow trees may be planted in such a manner 

 as to inflict no loss upon the surrounding land or crops, 

 or upon the owner beyond the direct outlay involved in 

 planting the land. To the actual planter a direct return 

 is seldom possible, but regarded as an investment the 

 planting of small clumps and hedgerow timber may prove 



