XX The Trees of Great Britain and Ireland 



too strongly emphasised that a study of local conditions is always essential. The 

 more a man knows of the risks and difficulties which planters have to contend with 

 in most parts of the country, the less willing will he be to offer advice, or to form 

 estimates of cost and expected profits based on experience which is not local. For 

 this reason I look with suspicion on hastily considered working plans and estimates 

 of costs and results which are not supported by local knowledge. Even in old-estab- 

 lished forests abroad, where the expenses and profits are based on the experience of 

 centuries, and where nothing is done without the approval of Government foresters, 

 changes are constantly being made in practice to meet the changing conditions of 

 the times ; and when we remember that our long-established systems of woodcraft 

 in England have been completely revolutionised in the last fifty years by changes 

 in economic conditions, the duration of which cannot be foreseen, it seems evident 

 that what we think right to-day may turn out to be wrong long before the trees we 

 plant are mature. 



Before concluding I should again like to offer a warning word on the question 

 of planting and management for profit, as contrasted with planting for ornament, 

 sport, and shelter. English landowners are sometimes reproached with ignorance 

 and neglect of the principles of pure forestry ; but it must always be remembered 

 that the economic, social, and in many districts the climatic conditions of Great 

 Britain, make planting for profit a very uncertain and often a very risky investment. 

 In our work we have endeavoured to show the possibility of cultivating a great 

 number of exotic trees which have not, and probably never will have, any economic 

 value from the forester's point of view, because we believe that when planted in 

 small quantities with sufficient knowledge of their cultural requirements, they will 

 add greatly to the interest, beauty, and residential value of British country homes ; 

 and we have illustrated the finest examples of most of the trees which exist in 

 Britain. We ought to aim as far as possible at planting those species which local 

 experience has tested, in situations which are most suitable to them. This warning 

 must apply not only to the rarer species, but to some which have been very exten- 

 sively planted of late years by enthusiasts in arboriculture, who look only at the 

 successes of others and refuse to look at the failures. I have myself learnt more 

 from my failures than from my successes ; and have never been able to understand 

 why in so many cases people are unwilling to show or to write of their failures, 

 when these are due as they often are to natural obstacles rather than to want 

 of care or knowledge. 



The future of arboriculture in Great Britain is a brilliant one, if landowners are 

 not deterred from planting by ill-considered or hostile legislation ; but the future of 

 pure forestry in England at least is very problematical. For though there are 

 districts where the land may under State foresters working on a larger scale than 

 private owners produce a more profitable return under timber than when used for 

 other purposes, yet I believe that these districts are so few and far between that the 

 establishment of a State industry, financed by taxation, to compete with the long- 

 established private industry of timber-growing would not be justified by any advan- 

 tage that would result to the country. (H. J. E.) 



