Afforesting Waste Lands and Financial Returns 285 



them, which was heated or cooked on the ground. Then, as 

 the plantations increase in age and size, and sawmills are 

 required, the ever-increasing industry so created will cause 

 hamlets to spring up in the wooded regions, just as we find 

 is the case in mining and quarrying districts. 



After careful computation I have no hesitation in saying 

 that the area of plantations in the United Kingdom could 

 at once be doubled by the planting of waste lands which at 

 present do not bring in over 2s. per acre per year of rental, 

 with infinite benefit to the country generally and a vast 

 increase in the value of land both to the owner and farmer 

 who cultivates it. In the matter of afforesting, a grain of 

 practice is worth a ton of theory, and as I have personally 

 supervised every operation, from marking out the plantation 

 boundary on the exposed hillside, to draining, fencing, 

 planting, thinning and disposing of the produce, my opinions 

 on the question are at least worthy of consideration. 



The Approaching Scarcity of Timber. Than timber 

 no article is probably more indispensable to the welfare of a 

 nation, entering extensively as it does into almost every 

 trade and industry. For England, therefore, with an ever- 

 increasing import, the possibility of a dearth of timber 

 must be regarded with the keenest anxiety, more particu- 

 larly as this would entail prohibitive prices and seriously 

 cripple the trade of the country. The following table, as 

 reported to the Washington Bureau of Manufactures, will 

 show at a glance the annual imports of timber of the princi- 

 pal countries of Europe : 



England . 16,342,600 cub. yds. 



Germany . 11,766,667 



France . 8,496,300 ,, 



Belgium . 1,897,777 



Italy . . .915,148 cub. yds. 



Denmark . 849,630 



Spain . . 392,222 



Switzerland . 313,778 



In face of this it is only reasonable to suppose that the 

 Government will act promptly in the matter, remembering 

 that no scheme of afforesting, however extensive or well 

 ordered, can bring the necessary relief for at least forty 

 years after its inception. For all this, and in spite of numer- 

 ous warnings as to the pressing necessity for tree planting 



