4 PRACTICAL FORESTRY. 



the country through, a really sound forester or wood- 

 man is but occasionally found. Many practical men 

 there . are who have acquired the knowledge they 

 possess by simple practice, but who are otherwise 

 absolutely disqualified from taking a leading part in 

 large forest transactions. Until by thorough and 

 sound teaching such a class is obtainable there is little 

 hope of any great improvement in our system of 

 arboriculture. Nothing succeeds like success, and if 

 some extensive plantings could be carried out, and if 

 they proved successful, no doubt many would follow 

 suit, and a sylvan era would ensue. 



We are a tree-loving people, and we revel in our 

 beautiful glades ; but we are not a progressive people 

 in this respect. We have not, in an equal degree, 

 that energy manifested by our ancestors in the intro- 

 duction of useful trees ; but we need not seek far 

 for the reason. In those remote times they were 

 dependent upon their own production, and were lavish 

 in the use of it. Now we are supplied from countries 

 east and west, north and south, and have thereby 

 lost to some extent our independence. If this supply 

 were stopped the old love of forestry would revive. 



Our object, however, is not to moralise, nor to 

 induce landowners to believe that this foreign supply 

 is likely to cease, but to induce them, if possible, to 

 improve their estates by planting for profit, for shelter, 

 or for ornament. That the foreign supply will de- 

 crease, from an increased home demand, from recession 

 from the port of embarkation, and from rise in 

 freights, is a foregone conclusion ; but a conclusion 

 remote enough to excite no alarm. 



