PRESENT CONDITION OF ENGLISH FORESTRY 29 



to know, that English forestry does not pay. As a matter 

 of fact, probably it does not, if by " paying " is meant a 

 return of 5 or 6 per cent, on the capital outlay. Certain 

 crops, such as larch or ash, may possibly pay 5 per cent., 

 and larch certainly pays in many cases a great deal more. 

 But taking woods of all classes throughout England, the 

 nett return per acre probably does not exceed 5s. This 

 return is of course too small to entitle forestry to be regarded 

 as a commercial success, but it must be remembered that the 

 money returns are not the only ones derived from the 

 cultivation of trees. Their value in the direction of sport 

 and landscape effect are probably greater than their value 

 as timber producers, although it is by no means inevitable 

 that this should be the case. The low returns so often 

 complained of are due to the causes already referred to, and 

 it remains for landowners to inaugurate and carry out a 

 better system of planting and managing their woods which 

 will bring them more into line with other branches of estate 

 economy. 



PRESENT ASPECTS OF ENGLISH FORESTRY. 



The definition of English forestry as it is practised at 

 the present day is not an easy matter. Sylviculture pure 

 and simple may be practically defined as the art of growing 

 trees into marketable timber ; arboriculture as the cultivation 

 of trees for ornament; landscape gardening as the improve- 

 ment of the landscape, by planting and felling trees, and 

 their picturesque arrangement over a tract of country. 

 English estate forestry is all and none of these. It produces 

 marketable timber, and yet cannot be termed sylviculture 

 except in isolated patches. It produces ornamental trees 

 without any cultural effort on the part of the forester, and 

 it also improves the landscape without strictly conforming 

 to the rules of landscape gardening. The English climate 

 has been said to be made up of " samples," and in much the 

 same way English estate forestry is made up of samples of 

 sylviculture, arboriculture, and landscape gardening. 



The absence of any definite object being kept in view 

 with regard to English forestry is due to various causes. No 



