PLANTING AS AN INVESTMENT. 6g 



when the advantages which accrue are considered, no 

 forester is justified in neglecting so important a part 

 of his work. When the trees have become established, 

 which, in well-managed plantations, will take place 

 two years after planting, little attention will be needed 

 until the first thinning becomes necessary. Hereafter 

 there will be a financial return with each operation, a 

 return which may possibly recoup the outlay from the 

 commencement; and the plantations will have become 

 an important factor in the economy of the estate. 



The advantages to be gained by planting are con- 

 sidered by many so remote and visionary that our 

 area under timber does not largely increase ; if, how- 

 ever, the operation were more systematically, judici- 

 ously, and economically carried out, the result would 

 stimulate and encourage the owners of waste land to 

 plant, and so add largely to their resources. There 

 are few finer investments open to landowners than the 

 planting of larch and other trees suitable to their soil, 

 and if taken advantage of many financial difficulties 

 might be overcome. In Ireland especially there is 

 room for most extensive planting. There is no finer 

 soil or climate in the world for timber, and yet the 

 country has become almost disafforested. If the bare 

 hill-sides and the extensive wastes could be reclothed 

 with wood, prosperity would again dawn, and employ - 

 ^ment would be afforded to thousands who now for the 

 lack of it are living in poverty or quitting the country. 



We hear of all kinds of schemes, many of them 

 wild, to promote the well-being of the land, and yet 

 this one absolutely feasible method of reclamation is 

 allowed to pass almost unheeded. We believe that 



