RECLAMATION OF WASTE LAND. 451 



teaching. For it will be imperative to become acquainted 

 with such forestry also. 



As regards more practical steps, the application of the 

 knowledge acquired, whatever the State can do in the 

 acquisition of land for forest purposes in large blocks, 

 without overcharging tax-payers, it would be well that it 

 should do. For in the State's keeping there will be greatest 

 security for good forestry, for permanent forestry, and for 

 forestry to suit national requirements. However, expropria- 

 tion is rather an extreme measure to resort to, and it is 

 deserving of notice that the French, who really stand 

 nearest to ourselves in the matter of a revival of forestry, 

 have distinctly pronounced against the systeme etatique. 

 In Germany we have seen how even the staunchest cham- 

 pions of Crown prerogative, the junkers of the eastern 

 provinces of Prussia, have rebelled against the law for 

 expropriating PoHsh landowners. And we have chimed in 

 lustily in their chorus of condemnation. Under the French 

 law of i860 the Government has power to expropriate land 

 for forestal purposes and for safeguarding against mountain 

 floods ail nom de I'utilite publique. But those powers have 

 been only very sparingly used thus far. Their application 

 is in the law restricted to cases of really imminent danger 

 {danger ne et actuel), that is, in case of real danger threaten- 

 ing, say, on mountain-tops, from the neglect of proper tree 

 planting. We are not exposed to anything like the same 

 danger from the same cause. However, as in other respects, 

 as to ourselves, this is perhaps in even a higher degree a 

 matter of national exigency, and it is open to question whether 

 we might not endow our Government with similar powers 

 ail nom de I'interet commun. 



In any case a systematic survey of the country — of a 

 rather more detailed character than that taken in France — 

 because our available territory is so much more limited — • 

 to discover what areas there are suited for the purpose of 

 planting, and for which planting would be the most advan- 

 tageous employment— for we cannot sacrifice even our grass 

 to trees — will have to precede active measures. And such 

 survey might probably without difficulty be used as a 



