A COMMERCIAL CONCERN ii 



and its possibilities are little understood. As a re- 

 sult of this apathy on the part of the nation, we are 

 now faced with a very serious position. It has become 

 imperative, in the interests of the community, that a 

 certain proportion of the plantable waste land in these 

 islands should be placed under woods at as early a date 

 as possible. 



How is this to be done ? 



It will be obvious that it is quite beyond the power 

 {i.e. the purse) of the private individual, unassisted. 

 Forestry is not like agriculture. Long periods have 

 ±0 be passed before the harvest can be reaped, ordi- 

 narily sixty to eighty years for timber. It is a State 

 business. Forestry to be a success can only be under- 

 taken on a commercial scale. Large areas are re- 

 quired, and these areas must be in contiguous blocks 

 of from five hundred to several thousand acres of 

 compact woodland. Only in this way can forestry 

 be made to pay as a commercial concern. For with 

 such areas the felling and extraction of the material is 

 faciUtated, and the subsidiary industries which arise 

 in countries possessing a considerable head of popu- 

 lation can be supplied with the raw products they 

 require. This is not the duty of the private pro- 

 prietor. He can assist materially when he owns 

 compact areas of woods such as, in fact, exist on a few 

 of the large estates in the country ; or, again, a number 

 of smaller proprietors can similarly assist by clubbing 

 together woods or waste lands lying adjacent to one 

 another, and working them as one area under a trained 

 forester. The small areas of woodland dotted so 

 picturesquely over the countryside in these islands 



