40 FINANCE AND PLANTING METHODS 





cial forestry requires if it is to prove successful. 

 There is no reason, however, why the larger areas of 

 this kind should not in the future be managed so as to 

 provide a certain proportion of the large-sized high- 

 quality timber required by our industries — more 

 especially of the hardwoods such as oak, ash, syca- 

 more, elm, etc. The maintenance of such areas for 

 sport, shelter, and amenity purposes (Plate 9) is not 

 incompatible with their treatment on sound sylvicul- 

 tural and commercial lines. These woods are, however, 

 of no considerable importance for our present case. 

 The young commercial woods which have not yet 

 reached felling size must, however, be also included 

 here. The areas which will have been felled (either 

 clear cut or with a residue of worthless trees left on 

 the area), together with the considerable tracts of 

 useless scrub, classed as woodlands, may be taken at 

 1,500,000 acres. If we add to this area 5,000,000 

 acres of the poor-class waste lands which could be 

 profitably planted, we obtain an area of 6,500,000 

 acres which, in the interests of national economy, 

 should be planted up at once. Therefore the planting 

 work resolves itself into : 



{a) Replanting the areas felled over during the war 

 and the areas at present occupied by worthless scrub 

 (of which there are ex tensive tracts in Scotland) amount- 

 ing to 1,500,000 acres. 



(b) Planting up 5,000,000 acres of at present treeless 

 land, selecting in each county the better areas, which 

 will yield a good return for the capital laid out. 



In view of our growing requirements in timber, it 

 is unlikely that this area of 6,500,000 acres will, when 



