332. OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 
of £33,333 in timber; and to expect to have 
this large capital administered to the best advan- 
tage,—with probably fine scope for increasing 
the capital by skilful management, and thereby 
likewise increasing the annual income yielded by 
it,—for the sum of £39, 7s. 6d. a year paid as 
wages to the wood-reeve, does not seem quite 
in proper proportion to the nature of the services 
desired of him. 
It can hardly be denied that British land- 
owners, as a class, are decidedly apathetic with 
regard to Forestry. So far as game preserv- 
ing is antagonistic to good management of 
the woodlands, that matter has been fully dealt 
with in the last chapter. Other three causes, 
perhaps in some cases equally powerful in this 
direction, are want of funds, want of encour- 
agement offered by the State to induce land- 
owners to plant waste land, and danger of fires 
along railway lines. One great opportunity for 
State encouragement of economic Forestry was 
lost a year or two ago, when the Congested 
Districts Act for the Highlands was passed 
without favourable consideration having been 
given to the recommendations made on this 
