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paring values it must always be borne in mind that timber land is land 

 which can yield no agricultural rent The official statistics relating to con- 

 tinental State forests show us the result of forestry on a large scale, 

 and it is interesting to note how, under what we must believe to be an 

 equally efficient system of forestry management, the net revenue from 

 the several areas differs greatly. Thus from its two million acres of 

 forest area Bavaria draws a little over five shillings per acre per annum. 

 Wurtemburg, with nearly half a million acres, gets a return of about 

 eleven shillings; and Saxony, with a somewhat less area, receives 

 over seventeen shillings per acre per annum. For this country we 

 have no such figures. Our State forests result in a loss. It is un- 

 fortunate, too, that no returns are available from private forests and 

 woodlands, either in Britain or abroad. Estimates of possible pro- 

 fits in this country we have abundantly, but solid figures of expendi- 

 ture and receipt in relation to timber growing there are none. By the 

 favour of Mr. Munro-Ferguson, M.P., who, as a landowner exhibits a* 

 most enlightened spirit in regard to forestry, I am however, able to cite 

 the case of a pine and larch wood at .Novar, in Ross-shire, twenty -four 

 acres in extent, which was clean cut in 1883, and gives instructive 

 figures. After sixty-one years' growth on land similar to that which in 

 the neighbourhood yields a grazing rent of from one to two shillings per 

 acre, it is found to have yielded a net sum equal to a revenue to the land- 

 lord during the whole period of its growth of over nine shillings per 

 acre per annum, or an increased value of quite seven shillings per acre 

 per annum. Although it refers to only a single wood of limited extent, 

 this return shows how profitable waste land may become under timber. 

 No doubt from the estates of other of our landlords who own extensive 

 woodlands, where, if there is not the highest scientific forestry, there is 

 certainly goodwood management, results of an equally instructive kind 

 could be obtained — many would be better; and it is much to be desired 

 in the interest of forestry that they should be made known as an object- 

 lesson to those who doubt the profit of tree- growing. 



24. But in the return I quote ftom there is another interesting point 

 which I must not fail to note. During the pt riod of growth of the wood, 

 the outlay upon labour in connection with it amounted to a sum equal to 

 an expenditure of over thirty-one shillings per acre per annum. That is to 

 say, this sum was distributed in wages to the people of the neighbour- 

 hocd. This exhibits the benefits brought in the train of forestry, which 

 are no less important to the community at large than is the profit of the 

 crop to the landowner. The scientific treatment of woodlands and culti- 

 vation of forests for profit on a proper scale involve the employment of a 

 considerable amount of labour, much of it at a time when there is little 

 else doing in country districts, not only in the actual tending of the forest 

 area, but in the manipulation and subsequent preparation of the timber, 

 and in the manufacture of the numerous by-products obtainable from it. 

 In these days of congestion in cities the importance of the development 

 of such an industry which can provide occupation in the countrv, and 

 thus may aid in restraining migration to the towns, has not escaped 

 notice, and it cannot be too often or too greatly emphasised. 



25. The influences, to which we have just given attention, that have 

 prevailed in bringing about the present limited area of woodland in 



