SELECTION-WOEKED FOEESTS UNDER TEANSEOEMATION. 197 



or spruce firs planted out as nurses, is indispensable in the majority 

 of cases. The consequence is that the restoration, like the creation, 

 of a silver fir forest is the work of two generations of men, 

 and its difficulty can therefore be easily appreciated. And, indeed, 

 the important nature of the task before us cannot but strike any 

 one, if he only bears in mind that we have barely 500,000 acres of 

 silver fir and spruce forests under the control of the Forest Depart- 

 ment, that all the remaining areas containing these species are 

 comparatively of very little value, and that we depend on foreign 

 countries for an immense proportion of our annual supply of deal 

 timber when our own mountain forests could produce it all. But 

 silver fir forests are as quick to disappear as they are slow to reform 

 Thus it is a matter of no little Importance how we regulate the 

 working of such of these forests as are managed by the State, by 

 means of judicious Organisation Projects, and above all by practising 

 throughout the utmost economy and moderation. 



