xviii INTRODUCTION 



quantities of timber than have hitherto been 

 seen in English woods, he confidently replies that 

 there will be a great difference in the quantity 

 and quality of the timber, because earlier woods 

 were the result of rule-of-thumb practice, while 

 his woods, as the result of sound principles and 

 scientific knowledge in forestry, will be fully 

 stocked with excellent timber. The sanguine 

 prophet of great improvements in forestry due 

 to scientific knowledge has at least one undoubted 

 source of comfort, his views cannot receive an 

 early refutation. Before the woods grow to 

 maturity and the results are known, both he 

 and his critics will for the most part have left 

 this world. 



The mere failure of a wood to thrive or to 

 produce an adequate income does not necessarily 

 involve blame to the planter or to the present 

 owner, if they are different persons. Success 

 cannot be always attained in attempts to grow 

 timber crops upon land on the margin of sterility. 

 In the cultivation of such land some failures 

 are inevitable : the result may show that en- 

 closure and planting have done no more than 

 substitute dead and stunted trees in the place 

 of worthless herbage. Nor is the existence of 

 a crop of trees inferior to what could grow on 



