A COMMERCIAL CONCERN ii 



and its possibilities are little understood. As a re- 

 sult of this apathy on the part of the nation, we are 

 now faced with a very serious position. It has become 

 imperative, in the interests of the community, that a 

 certain proportion of the plantable waste land in these 

 islands should be placed under woods at as early a date 

 as possible. 



How is this to be done ? 



It will be obvious that it is quite beyond the power 

 (i.e. the purse) of the private individual, unassisted. 

 Forestry is not like agriculture. Long periods have 

 to be passed before the harvest can be reaped, ordi- 

 narily sixty to eighty years for timber. It is a State 

 business. Forestry to be a success can only be under- 

 taken on a commercial scale. Large areas are re- 

 quired, and these areas must be in contiguous blocks 

 of from five hundred to several thousand acres of 

 compact woodland. Only in this way can forestry 

 be made to pay as a commercial concern. For with 

 such areas the felling and extraction of the material is 

 facihtated, and the subsidiary industries which arise 

 in countries possessing a considerable head of popu- 

 lation can be supplied with the raw products they 

 require. This is not the duty of the private pro- 

 prietor. He can assist materially when he owns 

 compact areas of woods such as, in fact, exist on a few 

 of the large estates in the country ; or, again, a number 

 of smaller proprietors can similarly assist by clubbing 

 together woods or waste lands lying adjacent to one 

 another, and working them as one area under a trained 

 forester. The small areas of woodland dotted so 

 picturesquely over the countryside in these islands 



