212 Canadian Forestry Journal. 



plains. But your first work must be, to place those forests in 

 working order which yield the timber used in your country and 

 exported abroad. 



At the outset this, as all similar operations, will entail ex- 

 pense, which you will I hope, be able to get Parliament to sanc- 

 tion. But after a few years, the revenue from these forests will 

 far exceed the annual outlay, and then you will be independent, 

 and can think of other branches of your business. Your aim 

 should be, to make yourself financially independent as soon as 

 possible. 



In the teak forests in Burma, I commenced work in January, 

 1856, and in 1860 I was so far as to make a good annual surplus, 

 and to sell at my Rangoon timber depot, timber of the first 

 quality. Then, however, the timber merchants at Rangoon, 

 who at first had looked with contempt upon my operations, de- 

 manded that the forests should be made over to them, and with 

 the help of their friends, the powerful firms at Calcutta, they 

 induced the Government of India to send orders to Rangoon 

 (February, 1861), to throw open the forests to private enter- 

 prises. 



Your Government will, I trust, be more far-sighted when 

 the time comes, and I have no doubt they will be glad to have 

 the revenue which your forests will produce, and which, under 

 good management, will eventually become very large. 



You will naturally ask: Why is not the coniferous timber 

 which Great Britain imports, produced in this country? The 

 reply is, that the land is nearly all private property, and as a 

 rule the great proprietors are too rich to feel the necessity of 

 increasing their incomes by making their forests pay. There is 

 an immense deal of talking and writing regarding the necessity 

 of planting up the waste lands, and managing the existing 

 woodlands to greater avantage. In my younger days I have 

 talked and worked in this direction, and since Dr. Schlick has 

 taken charge of the Cooper Hill Forest School in 1885, he has 

 been indefatigable in writing and speaking publicly. I have 

 purposely kept in the background during this time, as it was 

 better that the movement should be in one hand, and as Dr. 

 Schlick had thrown himself into it heart and soul." 



