FOREST -TREES FOR COMMERCIAL PURPOSES. 



29 



Willow, Maple (Acer), Walnut, Wild Pear, Cherry, Crab, Acacia, 

 Laburnum, Mountain Ash in the next. 



Before dealing with the trees themselves, it will be well for 

 us to take a survey, generally, of the subject before us in its wider 

 aspect. 



It is first needful for us to bear in mind that woodcraft, as a 

 science, has not admittedly received in this country that attention 

 which the importance of the subject demands and deserves. 

 This is probably mainly due to the fact that woods have hitherto 

 been regarded chiefly in connection with their ornamental 

 character — as a necessary feature of the demesne, rather than 

 as a source of profit to the estate. The arboricultural value, so 

 to speak, of a plantation is one thing ; its sylvicultural value, 

 or otherwise, quite another. Woods have, therefore, been 

 planted and cultivated with a view to their being a feature of 

 beauty in the landscape, as well as an item of cost and revenue 

 in the estate accounts. This, it would seem, is now to be 

 rectified in great measure, as there has recently been a very 

 general awakening upon questions affecting woods and forests. 

 It is well that it should be so. 



Whatever may have been urged against our climate in the 

 past in connection with the production of fruit, as a British 

 industry, there is no room for any such expression of opinion in 

 connection with woodcraft, for the British Isles are specially 

 adapted for the growing of trees. It is difficult to understand 

 why such a comparatively small area is under forest, seeing, on 

 the one hand, that the timber crop offers an avenue for safe 

 extension, and, on the other, that there are thousands upon 

 thousands of acres that stand naked and are awaiting the turn- 

 over of the planter's spade. In these days of quick returns, 

 when the national attitude and habit is one of expectancy for 

 immediate return, it is, perhaps, hardly to be wondered at that 

 those crops force themselves to the front for first claim upon the 

 land which yield a more frequent turnover than timber. Yet 

 it is admitted, without much controversy, that even as woods are 

 worked now— that is to say, from some other than an immediately 

 purely profit-making point of view — there could be no better 

 investment than forest-tree planting for certain wide tracts of 

 land which the agriculturist neglects and Nature farms herself 

 in her own prodigal fashion when left alone. 



