24 SOME PRACTICAL SUGGESTIONS. 



offered are based upon personal observations made during 

 the writer's practical experience of these problems over a 

 period of twenty years, and although they are submitted 

 in separate form, it must be borne in mind that, except in 

 the case of the first mentioned, these questions are inter- 

 dependent, and must be considered as such to arrive at a 

 decision in any particular case. 



Firstly Where should planting operations be com- 

 menced ? A ready answer would be : Start wherever suit- 

 able ground is available. But several things besides the 

 mere establishment of forest areas must be regarded, and 

 the most important consideration is how the timber, when 

 produced, can be taken to the market. Next in point of 

 importance is the consideration of existing facilities for 

 carrying out the initial work expeditiously and economic- 

 ally. Not the least of these is the presence on or near 

 the area of a nucleus of labour available for the initial 

 work. Next we come to the question What road and 

 railway or shipping facilities exist ? And the existence of 

 these, and the use that can be made of them, determine 

 whether this or that place is the more suitable. Hence, 

 to sum up, begin on the most suitable ground that is most 

 convenient or accessible to the consumer, has at least a 

 nucleus of labour available, and has a good system of roads 

 for the carrying out of the planting. Inconvenient and 

 inaccessible districts should be the last places to be planted ) 

 in the hope that by the time they are approached facilities 

 may then be improved, and that when the timber has 

 reached marketable age the markets may be more readily 

 accessible, or may even have come nearer by reason of new 

 industries having sprung up in the wake of the earlier 

 created forests. 



The altitude to which planting may safely be extended 

 is a question to which no definite answer can be given. 

 In a general way, other conditions being equal, the altitude 

 will increase as we approach the equator or recede from 



