COPPICE OR NIEDER WALD. 79 



spoiling a property in which we had only a life- 

 interest, and which was ours only in trust for 

 future generations. But to tax the present 

 generation for benefits to be reaped a century 

 hence is to sacrifice justice to the present for 

 generosity to the future. Hence I would not 

 advocate the formation of new timber forests on 

 a large scale, except in so far as this can be done 

 by a fair tax on a liberal present forest revenue. 

 Even if we were entirely to identify the present 

 with the future, my rough calculations lead me to 

 assume that, to grow timber taking a hundred 

 years to reach maturity, the forest would be so 

 heavily weighted by compound interest accumulat- 

 ing on the first outlay, that it would be nearly two 

 hundred years before it would show a balance- 

 sheet superior to that of a coppice wood in a 

 locality where there was a good demand for fuel 

 and bullahs. 



In the face of a newly-developed demand for 

 timber in a country in which forests did not exist, 

 it would be a matter of very questionable prudence 

 to commence growing timber on a large scale, at 

 least if anything approaching a hundred years was 

 required for it to come to maturity ; for, under 

 English rule, material progress would hardly wait 

 with folded hands while the timber was growing, 

 but would rather turn to some substitute, with 



