UNDEVELOPED RESOURCES 107 



Over and above the social aspects, what does 

 commercial forest:^ propose to give the nation ? 

 Tersely expressed, it means the development of one 

 side of the national resources of the country — the 

 undeveloped resources. 



What are these undeveloped resources in these 

 islands ? We have some 16,000,000 acres of 

 mountain and heath land of varying quahty. Some 

 of this area by reclamation may, in future, be used 

 for the production of food — i.e. for agriculture. 

 Forestry— commercial forestry — in the accepted 

 definition of_the term rules Out from the sphere of 

 its activities all land which can be used to increase 

 the food supply of the nation. Nor does it take up 

 land which in one way or anothej can be utihsed 

 for the supply of materials for any of the other more 

 remunerative industries. 



What commercial forestry aims at is the utiUsation 

 of all land, by growing properly managed crops of 

 trees upon it, which cannot be made more pro- 

 ductive by other means. Out of the 16,000,000 

 acres above alluded to, there are probably at present 

 some 5,000,000 which could be put to their best 

 economic use by being placed under trees. In other 

 words, although the return on the capital invested 

 in forestry is low in comparison to other industries, 

 yet this capital devoted to the class of land forestry 

 can make use of yields a better return than any- 

 thing else, whilst at the same time giving the nation 

 other indirect advantages of an important nature. 



What are these ? 



The war has brought one into great prominence — 

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