ANCIENT AND MODERN FORESTRY 81 
crops, save in exceptional cases), close planting, 
judicious thinning regulated mainly in accordance 
with the demand for light made by each kind of 
tree forming the ultimate crop to be harvested as 
mature timber. And there has been neglect in 
regard to various matters which go to make the 
difference between Arboriculture, or growing of 
trees, and Sylviculture, or Forestry concerning 
itself with the growth of crops of timber. 
As matters are, our woods and forests now only 
ageregate about three million acres, and are so 
inadequate for the supply of existing require- 
ments in timber and other woodland produce, that 
our imports under these heads amounted to the 
enormous sum of over twenty-five and a third 
million pounds sterling during 1899. Of this 
over five million pounds were for rough-hewn, 
and over sixteen million pounds for sawn or 
dressed timber, practically all of it coniferous 
timber from the Baltic, Scandinavia, and Canada, 
which might quite well be grown in the British 
Isles. Making a liberal deduction for the value 
of labour included in these coniferous imports 
aggregating over twenty-one million pounds, the 
undeniable fact is laid bare that Britain annually 
F 
