24 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



fencing purposes by the owner. It is the nearest approach to a 

 natural forest, and one of the few examples of remunerative 

 forestry I have seen that one could be sure about. Larch, how- 

 ever, is an exceptional crop, and there can be no doubt that old 

 planters were not so far out in their expectations concerning 

 Larch-planting. Timber buyers well know large estates in York- 

 shire where the annual Larch fall has for many years been a 

 source of considerable income to the proprietor. 



A chief obstacle to planting nowadays is that owners of 

 estates are very reluctant to engage to any extent in planting as 

 an investment. This is due to the fact that their past experience 

 in that direction has been far from encouraging, and that, taking 

 all contingencies into consideration, the length of time that must 

 elapse before a crop of timber can be realised, the risk, and, at 

 the best, the small ultimate profit to be expected, they do not 

 consider it worth while to plant. They can do better with their 

 money. I have always felt that no amount of persuasion would 

 ever get over such considerations as these on private estates. 

 It may be granted, however, that past forestry in this country is 

 hardly a safe criterion to go by for the future. Owners of estates 

 have certainly, and with the best intentions, spent their money 

 freely in planting, without any certain prospect of even a small 

 profit ever being realised, but they have also sacrificed much to 

 game, and by careless management, and want of foresight in 

 growing the wrong species of trees. Examples enough could be 

 found of all the three. The value of the timber on many an 

 estate might have been much higher if the timber had been of a 

 different kind. Hitherto there has been far too much of the 

 landscape gardener, the nurseryman, and the gamekeeper in 

 British woods, and too little of the timber merchant, who in the 

 end becomes the valuer. The whole British home timber trade 

 rests upon about as many species of trees as could be counted on 

 the fingers of both hands, or fewer, and the uses and value of 

 these have been perfectly well known for generations ; but instead 

 of making the most of these, in far too many instances effort has 

 been wasted on doubtful exotics, principally Conifers, and these 

 have not been tested in the way to prove their value as timber- 

 trees— a thing which can be done by plantation culture alone, 

 under which many trees will thrive that would hardly exist as 

 isolated specimens in the arboretum, which is no place to test 



