310 ■ Great Britain. 



prepaxation for the same occupy his mind. He lacks, 

 as Mr. Roseberry points out, scientific method, and 

 hence is wasteful. Moreover, he is conservative and 

 self-satisfied beyond any other nation, hence if all 

 the wisdom of the world point new ways, he will still 

 cling to his accustomed ones. In the matter of having 

 commissions appointed to investigate and report, and 

 leaving things to continue in unsatisfactory condition 

 he reminds one of Spanish dilatoriness. These would 

 appear to us the reasons for the difficulty which the 

 would-be reformers experience in bringing about 

 economic reforms. 



1. Forest Conditions. 



Caesar's and Strabo's descriptions agree that Great 

 Britain was a densely wooded country. The forest 

 area seems to have been reduced much less through 

 long-continued use, than through destruction by fire 

 and pasture, and by subsequent formation of moors, 

 so that it is now, excepting that of Portugal, the 

 smallest of any European nation in proportion to 

 total area, and, excepting that of Holland, in pro- 

 portion to population. 



Of the 121,380 square miles, which Great Britain 

 and Ireland represent, less than 4 percent, or 3 million 

 acres, (880,000 in Scotland, 303,000 in Ireland) are 

 forested, one-fourteenth of an acre per capita; but 

 there are over 12 million acres of heaths, moors and 

 other waste lands capable of forest growth and of 

 supplying in time the entire home demand, and an- 

 other 12 million acres partly or doubtfully so, while 

 the agricultural land in crops and pasture comprises 



