AFFORESTATION 135 



had remained in private hands will be lost. 

 Also in a country where every public servant 

 has a vote, there is an inevitable tendency to 

 considerable increases in salaries, wages, office 

 expenses, and pensions. 



One objection to State afforestation some- 

 times urged, is that it must be bad and expen- 

 sive. This objection is based on the very un- 

 satisfactory condition of the English Crown 

 lands. The Recent Forestry Sub-Committee of 

 the Reconstruction Committee take confidently 

 a different view. They say (p. 40), " We do 

 not believe that State afforestation means ex- 

 pensive and inefficient action. On the contrary, 

 we have the long experience of all the countries 

 in which forestry has reached a high pitch of 

 development and the promising methods of 

 management in certain of the Crown woods of 

 recent years to prove the contrary." 



The only countries in which forestry has had 

 a long experience and reached a high pitch of 

 development are France and the states of the 

 German Empire. All the countries to which 

 the Sub-Committee refer are only two in number. 

 Efficient is not a precise teim, and opinions 

 differ about the efficiency of the French and 

 German Forest Administrations. Expensive is 



