THE ENGLISH FORESTER 323 



own way. To cut down expenses, and spend one pound 

 where two are required, is not economy but waste, and the 

 money so spent might, as often as not, be thrown away, for 

 all the good it does in the long-run. To erect cheap netting, 

 buy cheap seedlings or plants, or withhold the necessary 

 expenditure on labour, does more than anything else to 

 render woods unprofitable. Yet such transactions are often 

 forced upon the forester against his better judgment, and he 

 is blamed behind his back for the failures which result from 

 them. A great deal more might be done towards the im- 

 provement of woods without incurring a greater expenditure, 

 if it were only gone about in the right way ; but when the 

 work is entrusted to the joint control of two or three 

 individuals, the efforts, inclinations, or ideas of one are sure 

 to run counter to those of another, and the final result be 

 partial or complete failure. 



A great deal of trouble might be avoided if every 

 woodland proprietor required his forester to place his views 

 and opinions before him, once a year at the very least, in the 

 form of a report of past operations and a programme for the 

 coming year combined. A programme for the coming season's 

 work is especially desirable, showing the nature of the work 

 needed or contemplated, the cost of doing it, and the benefit 

 likely to be derived on the part of the woods. A forester who 

 simply works from hand to mouth has no definite ideas as to 

 what he will spend or is expected to spend, and no definite 

 aims in view with regard to the management of the woods, 

 and can hardly be expected to do good work or achieve 

 satisfactory results. A great deal of work might be done at 

 odd times, or in short periods, when routine work is more or 

 less slack, without any inconvenience, if premeditated and 

 decided upon beforehand ; but when the forester is ignorant 

 as to the actual sum he is expected to spend, or the returns 

 he is expected to make in timber or money, his work 

 throughout must be more or less aimless and haphazard, and 

 a great deal of valuable time will be invariably wasted, be- 

 cause he is unable to begin work with any definite guarantee 

 of its being carried to a satisfactory conclusion. 



