January 2, 19 13] 



NATURE 



487 



way for settlement. But, to those who know, the 

 modern cultivated forest is very different. It yields 

 more timber, and its uses " for the healing of the 

 nations" are manifold and of the first importance. 

 The nearer it comes to our doors, the better for us; 

 and happily also the better for the cultivated forest. 

 The wild forest is generally a distant business, not 

 entering into the daily life of the people, a life which 

 the forest can so enrich and enlarge. 



The avowed object of the Development Commission 

 when instituted was '" to apply State methods long 

 proved successful in other countries and in the Colo- 

 nies to the development" of these islands^ But the 

 Development Commissioners have now formally stated 

 that their general policy is adverse to State forestry 

 (Report for period ending March 31, 1911). No reasons 

 are given for the adoption of a decision so strangely 

 at variance with the rest of the civilised world. Gcr- 

 manv spends 7,000,000/. a year on State forestry. The 

 Prussian Forest Department between 1S67 and 1892 

 acquired 329,850 acres of waste land for re-foresting 

 at a cost of about 1,125,000/., besides granting sub- 

 stantial bounties for planting to private landowners, 

 and giving in one year (1893) about 32,000,000 young 

 trees for planting to private owners of woodlands (Dr. 

 Xisbet). France, with a much smaller forest area, 

 spends half a million yearly on State forestry. 



Every country in Europe has its State forests in a 

 more or less advanced condition of development. Most 

 instructive, in this respect, is the excellent forest work 

 of Japan. With a cool head and free hands, un- 

 fettered by the traditions of Western Europe, it has 

 calmly appropriated what is good in Western 

 civilisation and rejected the bad. Japan adopted State 

 forestry in the earliest days of its civilisation. It is 

 nowr spending more than 250,000/. yearly on 

 its State forests, and it has some 100 million young 

 trees in its State forest nurseries. The returns show 

 an average of sixt\'-tw"o million trees planted yearly 

 in the State forests ! There are free grants of trees 

 and subsidies for private tree-planting. Instruction 

 in forestry permeates the whole educational system, 

 from the universities to the village schools. 



Writing as one who has borne a prominent share 

 in one of the largest works of constructive forestry 

 in recent times, I say without hesitation, let the 

 Development Commissioners frankly accept State 

 forestry and do as the rest of the w'orld. If, thirty 

 years ago. Cape Colony had hesitated at practical 

 State forestry it would not occupy the position it does 

 now. 



Cape Colony (now under Union the Cape Province) 

 has spent considerably more than 1,000,000/. on its 

 forestry, and it is now producing, within its own 

 borders, the greater portion of the timber imported 

 from abroad at a cost of between 300,000/. and 

 400,000/. yearly. Cape Colony has wisely held that it 

 is too poor a country to go on paying out this large 

 sum yearly for imported timber. 



Though so little has yet been done for practical 

 forestry in Britain, the Irishman has made 

 his voice heard with the happiest results ! He has 

 established an epoch in the histor\' of British forestry 

 with the decision of the Development Commission 

 that "State afforestation on a small scale may be 

 started in Ireland immediately." According to the 

 last returns that have reached me, there has actually 

 been acquired for forest purposes in Ireland an area 

 nf more than 7000 acres. 



It is a serious reflection that Great Britain, year 

 after vear, is spending some twenty-five million pounds 

 sterling on imported timber and forest products, 

 a considerable portion of which could be grown on the 

 wn^tc lands of these islands. 



Sir William Schlich, in one of his admirable pub- 



NO. 2253, VOL. go] 



lications on British forestry (" Forestry in the United 

 Kingdom," p. 23), saj's : " From time to time suitable 

 tracts of land come into the market and there is, in 

 my opinion, no reason wliy the State should not 

 acquire such land for re-foresting." 



Though little has been done for Scotch forestry, for 

 England and Wales there has been even less. Indeed, 

 no beginning of practical State forestry has yet been 

 made in England and Wales. The mountains of 

 Wales, the Weald of Kent, the Sussex Downs, still 

 show vestiges of their ancient wild forests ; and here 

 is the best field (near industrial centres) for the more 

 productive modern cultivated forest. There is no 

 reason, except national improvidence, why the Welsh 

 mines should continue to draw the greater part of 

 their pit props from France ; or why the Weald of 

 Kent and the Sussex Downs should not have their 

 ancient beauties restored and become once more a 

 source of local wealth and the joy to the Londoner 

 that the beautiful forests near Paris are to the 

 Parisians. Nowadays it is these accessible forests, 

 close to industrial centres, that yield the best returns, 

 some of them in France and Germany from 2/. to 

 more than 3/. per acre per year of net revenue. Not 

 very long ago it was remarked to me by a French 

 forest expert that these forests near Paris, financially, 

 were carrying the distant Alpine forests on their 

 backs ! 



There are considerable areas of poor land within 

 twenty or thirty miles of London that, at a reason- 

 able expenditure, could be turned into rich forests, like 

 the Beech forest of the Chiltern Hills. In the High- 

 lands of Scotland, and on the Welsh mountains, there 

 are climatic difficulties (too frequent mists, too little 

 sun), bogland, and peat. But the south-east of Eng- 

 land is free from these climatic troubles. It is every- 

 where within the climatic limits of vigorous and easy 

 tree crowth. Let us not forget that in going from 

 the north of Scotland to the south of England we 

 go half-w-ay to middle Italy and Portugal, where the 

 sun-power gives those enormous yields of timber that 

 are the won^der of foresters in more northern climates, 

 20 tons of (air-dry, seasoned) wood, or 700 cu. ft. 

 per acr£ per year. 



There are '36,000 acres of heath, waste, or poor 

 pasture land in Kent, Surrey, and Sussex. Labour, 

 especially during the winter months, is abundant. 

 Forest work is of the healthiest kind possible. No- 

 where in the w-orld do we see men of finer physique 

 than the small farmers and villagers of Germany, 

 who, in the winter, when other work is scarce, find 

 their salvation in the health-giving forest. 



Some 10 per cent, of the industrial population of 

 Germany draw their livelihood from the forest, and 

 Sir William Schlich has computed (" Forestry in the 

 United Kingdom ") that under any general scheme 

 of State forestry for the British Isles, there would be 

 employment for some two and a half million labourers 

 in winter, and parts of spring and autumn. Here 

 are far-reaching issues. Parliament has voted the 

 money to put them to the test. And yet we allow 

 insular prejudice to block the wav to State forestrv, 

 which is the essential feature of modern scientific 

 forestrv in other countries. D. E. Hitchins. 



Ridlev, Kent, December 17. 



The Recent Foraniinifera of the British Islands. 



I AM proposing, with my collaborator, Mr. .Arthur 

 Earland, to prepare a Monograph of the British 

 Foraniinifera, the work of Williamson being now in 

 serious need of being brought up to date. With this 

 object in view we are sending a preliminary schedule 

 of questions relative to the shore sands of the British 

 Islands to clergymen and medical men at coastal towns 



