Timbers. 



234 



[September, 1909. 



In countries whei e the natural wood- 

 lands have been exploited for timber 

 purposes, and adequate replanting has 

 not been done, it is easy to recognize 

 the importance of taking measures that 

 shall ensure an increasing supply of 

 home-grown timber, and lessen depen- 

 dence on declining foreign sources. But 

 when matters have been allowed to drif c 

 for a long period of years, there fre- 

 quently exist peculiar difficulties in the 

 way of the establishment of systematic 

 timber planting operations. Probably 

 the chief difficulty depends upon the 

 great extent to which the time element 

 enters into the question of the monetary 

 return that may be expected. Re- 

 afforestation is a question of national 

 importance in numbers of countries, but 

 it is also an economic question. The 

 great bulk of the waste lands of Great 

 Britain belong to private land-owners, 

 who in the present depressed condition 

 of agriculture, may well argue that they 

 cannot afford to enter upon an under- 

 taking which will involve great outlay, 

 and from which no return can be expect- 

 ed for from twenty to eighty years or 

 more, and the benefit of which will be 

 reaped by another generation. 



These considerations, however, should 

 not weigh with the State, the life of 

 which is continuous, and it is the obvious 

 duty of every Government to see that 

 all the waste lands in its possession 

 which are not adapted to give an 

 adequate return if utilized for agri- 

 cultural purposes, but which are fitted 

 for growing certain kinds of timber, 

 should be planted up with useful species 

 of trees. Such plantations should serve 

 as an object lesson to private estate 

 owners, and be also useful as Forest 

 Experiment Stations, at which valuable 

 data in regard to the cost of estab- 

 lishing and managing woodlands on 

 the most economical basis could be 

 accumulated. 



It should be remembered, too, that a 

 poor soil is, in time, vastly improved by 

 oearing a forest crop, if the trees are 

 maintained in a proper condition as 

 regards density, for the spreading roots 

 permeate the subsoil, draw upon its 

 sources of nutrition, and gradually 

 convert it into soil proper. The fall of 

 the leaves too, and their decay, impart 

 a large amount of humus to the soil, 

 keeping it moist and improving its 

 fertility. The relationship between 

 woodlands and water supply was dis- 

 cussed in the last issue of this journal. 



Among European countries Germany 

 has long taken the lead in regard to 

 forestry matters. No less than 26 per 

 cent, of the whole area of that country, 



or 35,000,000 acres, are under woodland, 

 and the average timber return obtained 

 has been estimated at about 40 cubic 

 feet per acre per annum. By means of 

 University Departments and Forest 

 Academies the German Government has 

 provided excellent facilities for obtain- 

 ing instruction in the subject. Much 

 the same state of affairs, though on a 

 lesser scale, exists in France. In the 

 Scandinavian countries, forestry is at 

 once an art, and a very paying business. 

 In all those countries, the State forests 

 are making very handsome returns on 

 the capital outlay. 



But in no country has the subject of 

 forestry increased so much in import- 

 ance, or received so much attention, as 

 in the United States during the past ten 

 years. It is stated in the Yearbook of 

 the U. S. Department of Agriculture, 

 that since 1897 the National Forests 

 have increased from 39,000,000 acres, 

 practically unused and unprotected, to 

 105,000,000 acres, used, guarded, and 

 improved in productiveness and accessi- 

 bility. Though the Government forests 

 have not been under expert control 

 for more than a few years, they 

 are already self-supporting, and will no 

 doubt become highly remunerative with 

 the lapse of time. The facilities for 

 forest education have also largely in- 

 creased, and regular, systematic courses 

 of instruction, extending over two, 

 three, or four years, are given at seven 

 universities, and a large number of 

 forest schools. Advantage is being taken 

 of these facilities, and the number of 

 graduates from the American forest 

 schools incresaed from three in 1899 to 

 sixty-six in 1907. And yet the article to 

 which allusion has been made calls for 

 more vigorous action in connexion with 

 the national snpply of timber, and points 

 out that in the United States as much 

 timber is now being used in one year as 

 can be grown in three. 



In the West Indies this matter of re- 

 afforestation has attracted some small 

 amount of attention of late years, 

 although little has been done so far. 

 Large numbers of trees suitable for 

 timber exist in the various islands, and 

 a good deal of useful information in this 

 connexion is contained in two papers 

 entitled respectively, ' The Timbers of 

 Jamaica,' and the 'Timbers of Dominica,' 

 which appeared in the West Indian 

 Bulletin, Vol. IX, No. 4, just issued. 

 Useful efforts might be made in the 

 direction of increasing the supply of 

 home-grown timber availablefor employ- 

 ment in these islands, but the ability to 

 establish an export trade would appear 

 to be limited to particular cases in 

 special islands. 



