114 FORESTRY AND AGRICULTURE 



gladdening the eye of the farmer. And yet who 

 farmed here in the old days t And under what con- 

 ditions ? The marks are unmistakable. Where is 

 now a howling wilderness of heath and bracken or 

 tussocky grass, pretty to look at, but worthless 

 economically, crops were raised by our forefathers. 

 The explanation is simple. In their day the neigh- 

 bouring hiUs were covered with forest, affording the 

 necessary shelter to these localities, and thus enabUng 

 them to produce crops of food for man. In some 

 cases, and they may be more numerous than can 

 yet be surmised, through the restoration by replant- 

 ing of the shelter in the form of commercial woods, 

 the extension of the area of the food-producing lands 

 may be attainable. 



The relation between agriculture and forestry, in 

 the absence of all real forests in this country for 

 several generations, meets with httle recognition as 

 yet amongst the pubKc. The farmer realizes the 

 value of shelter belts for the protection they afford 

 his fields and stock. The townsman and the maj ority 

 of country people have regarded the woods as 

 mainly kept up for sport or amenity purposes. The 

 close affiliation and interdependence of agriculture 

 and commercial forestry has not been understood — 

 is perhaps scarcely appreciated by the bidk of the 

 population at the present time. 



We have shown that commercial forestry starts 

 with the recognition that the forest has no claim 

 to the utiUzation of all land which can be used by 

 the agriculturist, with the exception of the small 

 areas required as nurseries for the raising of the 



