24 POSITION OF AFFORESTATION QUESTION 



been available in this country, and the great trouble 

 to which mineowners were put and the ruinous prices 

 they are paying for their timber, and we are all pay- 

 ing for our coal, would not have existed. Paper pulp 

 from areas of spruce woods which many parts of our 

 lands can grow to perfection would also be available, 

 and the Press would not be faced with the position in 

 which the action of a neutral and of our own Govern- 

 ment has now placed them. 



With these facts staring us in the face, will it not 

 strike us that the crusade preached by Evelyn two and 

 a half centuries ago and the spirit for planting — as it 

 was quaintly termed — which it aroused, should once 

 again be raised throughout the country, and that the 

 few who have preached it in and out of season during 

 the last quarter of a century should now have the 

 nation at their back ? 



After all, it is a question for the country. There are 

 3,000,000 acres of so-called afforested land — of wood- 

 lands. And we have, say, 9,000,000 acres of afforest- 

 able land ; put it at 7,000,000 or even 5,000,000. It 

 will do to go on with. It has been stated by many 

 who know what they are talking about that this land 

 or much of it will bring in more under trees than under 

 any other form of cultivation ; or, to put it in another 

 way, that this land will prove a greater national asset 

 under woods than managed in any other way. Why 

 not then set to work and get it planted up ? If for no 

 other reason than the one of national economy, the 

 matter must be regarded as one of urgency. We 

 can no longer afford to leave any source of national 

 wealth unexploited. We must all agree that it has 



