PRACTICAL FORESTRY. 



Having personally explored much of the mountain 

 and heath lands in England and Scotland, and some of 

 the vast tracts of bog land in Ireland (the latter- 

 extending to fully 1J million acres), I have carefully 

 computed that of land up to 1,200 feet altitude, where 

 timber would grow perfectly well, about 9,000,000 acres 

 are available for afforesting purposes. As far as I have 

 been able to find out, the average rental of the ground 

 referred to is a fraction under 3s. per acre, and I am 

 quite confident that any land which does not bring in at 

 least tjicfifi, _tirnes that amount for grazing or agricultural 

 purposes woumTxT more profitably employed in carrying a 

 crop of timber. 



It is unfortunate that much of these waste lands are 

 private property, the owners of which, even could they 

 afford it, have little inclination to sink, for a period of 

 say twenty years, the necessary capital required to be 

 expended on the formation of woods and plantations. 

 Equally unfortunate is it that owing to an injudicious 

 system of management many plantations in this country 

 have been wrongly formed in so far as adaptation of soil 

 and trees are concerned, the results being that financially 

 speaking the woods are a failure, and proprietors in con- 

 sequence fight shy of further planting operations. I have 

 examined and reported on several of such woods in various 

 parts of the country, one of the most noticeable being 

 in Nottinghamshire, where a large area of ground was 

 planted with a crop of oak, for which tree the soil was 

 (juite unsuitable, the result being that over the whole 

 ground the average production of timber per tree was under 

 10 cubic feet in 60 years. When pressing home the 

 question of woodland extension I have frequently been 

 confronted by the argument that past experiences do not 

 warrant further expenditure in that way. That this is true 

 cannot be denied, but let us hope that such will be 

 remedied by the better education of our foresters in the 

 near future, and more attention to the relation of trees 

 and soil. 



With the severe agricultural depression through which 

 this country is passing, and the disinclination of owners 



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