INTRODUCTION TO FIFTH EDITION 



IN my long experience of British Forestry, which, in a 

 practical way, has extended over a period of forty years, 

 I have become more and more convinced that in order to 

 place it on a systematic and sound economic footing, State 

 aid and the afforesting of large areas of comparatively 

 waste lands are first necessities. 



For the past thirty years I have not failed to urge upon 

 the State, as well as private owners of suitable land, the 

 pressing necessity of afforestation ; and though in this 

 matter a start has been made, yet this can only be looked 

 upon as a faint, half-hearted attempt quite unworthy of 

 our country and the vast interests at stake. As early as 

 1883, I drew attention to this matter in Woods and Forests, 

 and at later periods in most of the leading journals and 

 papers of the day ; while in my evidence given before the 

 Select Committee on Forestry, and in a paper contributed 

 by special request to the Board of Agriculture, I went fully 

 into the question, and pointed out what a boon to the 

 unemployed, and how great a saving to the country would 

 be effected by a well-organized scheme of tree planting. 



Years ago I urged the Government to take up the ques- 

 tion of the Larch disease, the ravages of which I then 

 described as being little short of a national calamity. To 

 the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, and 

 the Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society, I have contri- 

 buted twenty-three papers on different topics connected 

 with forestry, for which special medals have been awarded, 

 while my Practical Forestry has now passed into a fifth 

 edition. 



In connection with the afforesting of waste lands, I have 



ix 



