ANCIENT AND MODERN FORESTRY 81 



crops, save in exceptional cases), close planting, 

 judicious thinning regulated mainly in accordance 

 with the demand for light made by each kind of 

 tree forming the ultimate crop to be harvested as 

 mature timber. And there has been neglect in 

 regard to various matters which go to make the 

 difference between Arboriculture, or growing of 

 trees, and Sylviculture, or Forestry concerning 

 itself with the growth of crops of timber. 



As matters are, our woods and forests now only 

 aggregate about three million acres, and are so 

 inadequate for the supply of existing require- 

 ments in timber and other woodland produce, that 

 our imports under these heads amounted to the 

 enormous sum of over twenty-five and a third 

 million pounds sterling during 1899. Of this 

 over five million pounds were for rough-hewn, 

 and over sixteen million pounds for sawn or 

 dressed timber, practically all of it coniferous 

 timber from the Baltic, Scandinavia, and Canada, 

 which might quite well be grown in the British 

 Isles. Making a liberal deduction for the value 

 of labour included in these coniferous imports 

 aggregating over twenty-one million pounds, the 

 undeniable fact is laid bare that Britain annually 



