CHAPTER III 



PROSPECTS AND POSSIBILITIES OF ENGLISH 

 FORESTRY 



IN considering the possibility of any important increase 

 in the area of English woodlands, three important points 

 present themselves : list, The existence of suitable land for 

 planting; 2nd, The financial result of planting it; and '3rd, 

 The provision of the necessary capital. The suitability of 

 land for forestry purposes is not determined by its ability to 

 grow good timber alone. If this were so, then we might 

 select the most fertile and sheltered tracts in the country, 

 and success would be practically assured. But in England, 

 or, for that matter, in any thickly populated country, 

 agriculture must of necessity occupy the first place in land 

 utilisation, for the feeding of the population takes precedence 

 of all other branches of rural economy. From the land- 

 owner's point of view, the most approved method of utilising 

 land is that which will bring him in the best and most 

 direct return. By far the greater part of the land of the 

 country is used for agricultural purposes, and its value 

 depends directly upon its fertility, the landowner reaping 

 the benefit in the form of rent. The rent of ordinary 

 agricultural land ranges from 3 per acre in the case of 

 fertile pasture land, down to 2s. 6d. per acre in the case of 

 hill pasture, sheep walks, etc. It is obvious that a land- 

 owner in receipt of an immediate nett return of 1 or more 

 per acre has no inducement to turn his attention to other 

 means of utilising it under average agricultural conditions, 

 and certainly would not give it up in favour of growing a 

 crop which would take at least fifty years to mature, and 

 involve the locking up of capital for that period, if not longer. 



