2 PRACTICAL FORESTRY. 



located anywhere ; it is but the outcome of low prices 

 and keen foreign competition. 



We have no intention, however, of giving way to 

 this depressed state of writing ; but rather, taking 

 the standpoint of an optimist, endeavouring, in the 

 following chapters on Forestry, to point out how, in 

 the not very remote future, such a state of depression 

 may be met, and, to some extent, defeated. 



Landowners i.e., owners of purely agricultural land 

 have been too dependent upon rents emanating 

 from the land, and not partially independent, as they 

 might be, in such an emergency, on accqunt of the 

 profits arising from well-managed woodland. 



Few will be inclined to cavil at the following state- 

 ment that our woods and plantations are not such a 

 source of income and wealth as they might be. If 

 the same enterprise bestowed upon our agricultural 

 land in the expenditure of landlords' capital had 

 been manifested in the expenditure of capital upon 

 our woodlands, there would have been that proverbial 

 second string so useful when found. Few landowners, 

 however, have been able to meet these periods of 

 depression by drawing upon their woods, without 

 injuring very largely the interests of their successors. 

 And yet where true forestry has been carried out the 

 land has been found capable of yielding an annual 

 return equal, if not superior, to arable or pastoral 

 land of sorhewhat similar quality ; and with this 

 advantage, that the yield is present when wanted 

 without a large yearly expenditure, and without the 

 risk arising from fluctuations and seasons. Too often, 

 however, as is manifest to even a casual observer, our 



