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INTRODUCTION. 



In my long experience of British Forestry, which in a 

 practical way has extended over a period of thirty years, 

 I have become more and more convinced that in order to 

 place it on a systematic and sound economic footing' 

 State aid and the afforesting of large areas of comparatively 

 waste lands are first necessities. 



For the past five and twenty years I have not failed 

 to urge on the State, as well as private owners of suitable 

 land, the pressing question of afforestation ; and though in 

 this matter a start has been made, yet this can only be 

 looked upon as a faint, half-hearted attempt that is quite 

 unworthy of our country and the vast interests at stake. 

 As early as 1883 I drew attention to this matter in 

 "Woods and Forests," and at later periods in most of 

 the leading journals and papers of the day ; while in my 

 evidence given before the Select Committee on Forestry, 

 and in a paper contributed by special request to the Board 

 of Agriculture, I went fully into the question of afforesting^ 

 and pointed out what a boon to the unemployed, and what 

 a saving to the country would be effected by a well 

 organised scheme of tree planting. Eight years ago I urged 

 the Government to take up the question of the larch disease, 



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