58 EXPLOITATION OF PLANTS 
doubtful if the most paying species would yield a 
return sufficiently large to attract the landowner, 
especially having regard to the speculative character 
of the investment. 
But although one cannot go so far as some optimists 
have done, and predict that State forests would yield a 
high rate of interest, yet there is reason for believing 
that it would prove at least as profitable as many of the 
municipal ventures which are undertaken for the benefit 
of local communities. 
In this connection it must be borne in mind that 
probably when this war is over we shall pass through 
‘a period in which unemployment will be even more 
acute than in the corresponding years succeeding the 
Boer War. 
Afforestation has been looked to as a palliative for 
the unemployed problem, and though many objec- 
tions can be raised on the grounds of the unskilled 
character of such labour, it will probably prove the 
best means of retaining and increasing our rural 
population. 
But by far the most weighty argument, to my mind, 
for the establishment of State forests is their value in 
bringing about the establishment of attendant industries. 
We see this in the flourishing chair industry of High 
Wycombe, which had its origin in relation to the regular 
local supply of beechwood, but which now requires 
large quantities of imported wood for its upkeep. In 
the days after the war, when we shall have to strain 
every sinew to re-establish our former wealth, will it 
be too much to sacrifice a high rate of interest if we 
can supply our home markets with converted timber 
