8 PRACTICAL FORESTRY. 



stated, planting is the most certain of success, and 

 future generations will have cause to bless those who 

 now invest their money in this way. 



To plant a tree is one of the duties of every 

 Englishman, and it is rapidly becoming recognised as 

 a duty in all our colonies, with a view of replacing 

 those vast forests denuded of trees. Consider the 

 case of a treeless tract ; what is more dismal and 

 dreary ? Those who have travelled over wide areas 

 without a tree to break the monotony of the land- 

 scape, and who, after days of travelling, have found 

 themselves in vast wooded districts, can appreciate 

 true forestry. Apart from the actual value of the 

 timber upon the land (which in itself does not increase 

 the capital value of land, it being capitalised as an 

 additional item), the increase in value which arises 

 from its presence is a factor not to be lost sight of. 

 It is a striking factor, as all know who have purchased 

 or sold landed estates. There can be no greater 

 inducement to purchase or retain an estate than the 

 fact of its being well covered with ancestral timber. 

 It is something which the millionaire cannot obtain 

 at will ; something which he may covet, but which, 

 except by purchase, is beyond his reach ; and although 

 he purchases trees at so much a foot, the inherent 

 value of their presence is the mainspring on which 

 hinges the value of the estate. 



On likely building sites, what gives such a value as 

 the presence of timber? Timber not present cannot 

 be placed there except by planting and the lapse of 

 years. On bleak estates, or on such as would be 

 bleak but for the presence of timber, does the timber 



