l82 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY, 
" British Forestry : Its Present Position and Outlook after the 
War." By E. P. Stebbing. 8vo., 257 pp. (Murray, London, 1916.) 
6s. net. 
This carefully* prepared and illustrated work, which contains 
some interesting and useful information, is mainly compiled from 
articles that have been communicated by the author to several of our 
newspapers and magazines. 
The title " British Forestry " is, however, somewhat misleading, 
as much of the book is devoted to Russian forests and their resources. ' 
Though valuable for the purposes of comparison, the information 
regarding the resources of Finland, Siberia, and Turkestan might 
well have been greatly shortened and more useful chapters on the 
subject-matter of the book substituted, such as the management of 
woodlands, conversion of timber, and other important matters which 
at the present time appeal directly to the student of British forestry. 
Of what value to those interested in home woods and the production 
of timber is the article on the cedar trade of Asiatic Russia ? or that 
on the scrub and swamp-lands of the Siberian regions ? 
Under Finance and Planting we find some excellent advice, though 
we question much, judging from the actual outlay on estates in England, 
Scotland, and Ireland, whether the formation of plantations can be 
carried out successfully at a less average than £5 an acre. When 
we consider, too, that the majority of Scotch plantations, which are 
far and away the most extensive and valuable in Britain, coniferous 
sections in particular, and from which the Government are at present 
drawing their main supplies of timber for war purposes, were " notch " 
planted, it is hard to conceive why the system is condemned in this 
book. 
Mr. Stebbing hits directly at the cause when he says that the 
finance of the afforestation problem has been the main stumbling- 
block to progress, plus the ignorance and apathy exhibited on the 
subject by Government and public alike ; and his suggestions regarding 
renting ground abroad for timber production are well worthy of 
consideration. With cheaper labour and more simple methods, 
planting has been carried out at a lower rate in Scotland than in 
England, where the prices of timber, too, are considerably lower. 
At present, Scotch pine-wood suitable for packing-cases is selling 
around London at zod. a cubic foot, while ash has realized as much 
as 4s. and spruce for railway purposes is. 4^. a foot in the woodlands. 
Poplar realizes fully is. 2d. a foot, and the very finest beech for Govern- 
ment purposes, procured on the Chiltern Hills, averages is. 4^. 
There is much of interest in the matter of afforesting and the em- 
ployment of labour, but, unless for the transplanting of seedlings and 
light nursery-work, we fear that female labour will not be of much avail 
in the afforesting of waste lands or timber-felling and conversion. 
