86 PRACTICAL FORESTRY. 



may realise his full share during his limited occupa- 

 tion. This fact alone should tend to a fuller develop- 

 ment of forestry, but it is too often lost sight of; and 

 the love of gain, or necessity, obscures the vision, 

 otherwise clear and honest enough. For each tree 

 felled by impecunious owners a young tree is not 

 planted, and only too often a young heir is not pre- 

 served, therefore the yearly growth of remaining 

 timber alone can balance that which is taken ; and 

 this we know to be insufficient. 



There can be no doubt that the quantity of home 

 timber, by this constant realisation, has been sadly 

 and seriously diminished ; and it is only by an exten- 

 sion of the knowledge of forestry and the conservation 

 of existing woods and plantations that the loss can 

 be replaced. 



What should we say of the farmer who reaped his 

 wheat and sowed no more? Yet, for generations 

 landowners have reaped and have not planted ! Look 

 at our hillsides which at one time were clothed with 

 woods, where rivulets have dried up, and where sudden 

 floods prevail through the removal of timber. This is 

 the result of realisation without replenishment. 



Realisation, when full maturity is reached, is, as we 

 have before stated, an act of good forestry. There is 

 no period of actual rest in the growth of timber. 

 When a tree has reached the zenith of its vigour it 

 will begin to decay. It is waste, then, on the part of 

 the forester to stay his hand. It is not necessary, 

 however, always to wait for this period, for com- 

 mercial maturity may be reached before natural 

 maturity, and probably it will pay the owner best to 



