2 Practical Forestry 



however, be a blessing in disguise, for of late years both 

 demand and price for this particular class of timber have 

 been by no means great and have hardly warranted the 

 owners of vacant land in undertaking the much-needed 

 extension of our woodlands. Larch, on the other hand, 

 is scarce and always in demand at a highly remunerative 

 price, as also are Ash, Oak and Beech of large size and 

 good quality. 



It is useless to go into the question of how long our 

 home supplies of timber will last, this depending largely 

 on the volume of foreign importations and the duration 

 of the war, but, judging from present demands, three years 

 will find our plantations in a more or less depleted condition. 

 The main question we have to consider and decide, without 

 delay, is how our cut-over plantations are to be replaced 

 by the replanting of exhausted woodlands and afforesting 

 some of the waste lands of our country. 



Continental experience has demonstrated that, from a 

 commercial point of view at least, State-owned forests are 

 preferable to such as are owned either by public bodies 

 or by private individuals. The resources and continuity 

 of a nation will always make the State the best custodian 

 of forest property ; indeed, only the State can acquire the 

 necessary land on the most favourable terms, and in suffi- 

 cient quantity for the purposes of extensive afforestation. 

 Private individuals or, indeed, public bodies labour 

 under many disadvantages in this respect, not the least 

 being the long period required -in most cases from fifty 

 to sixty years before the money expended in planting 

 can be even partially recovered. 



Contrary to the conditions obtaining in the raising of 

 agricultural crops, long periods have to elapse before the 

 forestry harvest can be reaped. It will be obvious, there- 

 fore, that extensive tree-planting is quite beyond the power 

 of the private individual unassisted. It is a State business, 

 in which systematic methods of cultivation, and large 

 wooded areas are first necessities ; and, unfortunately, in 

 this country commercial forestry is but little understood 

 in fact, it may be described as an unknown industry. 



