JANUARY 25 



this, provided the calculation is honest and founded on 

 full information. At least, he who does so differ can 

 care little about his woods. Upon ground where even 

 a moderate stock of rabbits exists every piece of new 

 planting must be fenced with wire -netting sunk into 

 the ground. What would this mean upon a woodland 

 where ten acres are felled annually in rotation, and 

 therefore ten acres replanted? Simply an addition to 

 the cost of planting of between £2 and £8 an acre. Wire- 

 netting cannot be erected at less than 6d. a yard; to 

 fence ten acres in an exact square will therefore cost 

 between £20 and £S0. But this is not all. Where 

 rabbits abound, seedlings and coppice are destroyed, and 

 the wood cannot be restored by natural regeneration, 

 which, upon suitable soils, serves as the costless substitute 

 for replanting. To the debit of the rabbit account, 

 therefore, must be placed, not only £2 or £3 an acre, 

 the cost of erecting wire-netting, but £6 an acre, the 

 cost of replanting; in other words, an initial tax upon 

 the young wood of from £8 to £9 an acre — £80 or £90 

 upon ten acres. British forestry, if it is to take the 

 place as an industry to which our soil, climate, and 

 requirements entitle it, must be relieved from this 

 intolerable burden, or else it must remain a monument 

 of mismanagement — a source of marvel to intelligent 

 foreigners at the present time, and the subject of bitter 

 malediction from our grandchildren in the future. 



[Since these lines were written the Departmental 

 Committee on Forestry, presided over by Mr. Munro 

 Ferguson, M.P., have issued their report (1902), and 

 strongly recommend, inter alia, 'the establishment of 

 at least two large State forests, which shall demonstrate 



