388 THE BOOK OF THE LANDED ESTATE. 



I have yet to learn that this Association, or any other with similar objects in view, 

 has ever taken up in a right way those points in the scientific culture of trees, the 

 elucidation of which are so much wanted to guide and assist the practical forester ; 

 or those influences, good or bad, which trees are found to possess over the soil and 

 climate, and hence over the health of other vegetation, besides animals. 



There has not, perhaps, been occasion for such a notice of what some may consider 

 as merely a branch of agriculture, and who may therefore object to giving arboricul- 

 ture any independent standing ; but I wish now to remove this objection, and to claim 

 for it that position which I hope to show its importance deserves. I leave it to the 

 critical assorter of scientific subdivisions to say under what particular heading my 

 subject should be placed. All I want is its proper recognition as a science on what 

 grounds, a few facts will suffice to show. 



The area of Great Britain is about 57,000,000 acres, of which it is estimated 

 2,600,000, or l-22d part, are under a crop of wood of all kinds and ages ; or, more par- 

 ticularly, the whole surface may be divided into five grand divisions, thus : 



Acres. 



Corn crops, 9,300,000 



Green crops, . ' 3,500,000 



Grass, 15,800,000 



Wood, 2,600,000 



Uncultivated, 25,800,000 



57,000,000 



There is, then, in our island, one acre in every twenty-two covered by trees, or only 

 one-third less than what is under green crops. To every eleven acres of cultivated 

 land there is one of wood, and one to every sixteen of uncultivated. Had this wood 

 acreage no existence, the other figures would have a different appearance, as trees, as 

 a whole, being almost disconnected from the main body of the uncultivated, the crops 

 and grass would probably not show half what they now do ; and in place of 26,000,000, 

 the uncultivated would stand about 40,000,000. 



Without its timber, Britain and more especially other countries, less favourably 

 situated as regards latitude and sea influences would, it may be safely said, never 

 have attained its present eminence, either politically or agriculturally. The gross 

 land rental of Britain being about ,53,000,000, or 18s. 6d. per acre overhead, but 30s. 

 when confined to the cultivated ; and as a wood crop is found to return as much, on 

 an average, as arable, we find the annual value thereof to be no less than .2,500,000 

 a financial fact to tell in favour of the object of this paper. 



While trees regulate a climate, it is also a fact that injudicious clearing or over- 

 planting respectively cause aridity and humidity. Most calamitous effects could be 

 instanced, especially in foreign countries, from the reckless sweeping away of forests, 

 whereby destructive inundations are frequent, and the country around has become a 

 waste. 



The want of a due proportion of a country under a tree crop is certain to cause 

 irregularity of temperature, violent storms, and dryness. 



Oil the other hand, a country may be overclothed with wood, so as to bring about 

 just the opposite effects, which, besides their more immediate results, are well known 

 as generators of disease. Upon the grounds of these few facts, then, it is evident that 

 a climate may be made, or at least regulated, by man, to suit different crops and dis- 

 tricts. This is a power in our hands which seems to have been overlooked, and surely 

 it is one of invaluable importance. As a certain body of trees do influence, one way 



