The Principles of Forestry. 
341 
for the teaching of science, and still further, necessity for its 
application ; but a lack of the knowledge of the vital principles 
is not the cause of this vast depression. It is, as all know, 
owing to the importation from abroad of commodities, hitherto 
grown successfully at home, at a cheaper rate than they can be 
produced by our more expensive methods. So long as this con- 
tinues, so long must depression continue. . 
The same rules and principles, however, do not apply to the 
growth of timber. Our landowners, though apparently they 
have failed to recognise it, could still compete favourably with 
foreign growers if they managed their woodlands on the true 
principles of forestry. Competition, in fact, in timber is abso- 
lutely essential, rendered so by the fact that the home supply 
is insufficient, and often unsuitable. The amount imported, 
large as it is, has not reduced the price of home-grown timber 
below a paying level. This statement may be scouted by many, 
but is nevertheless true. 
It is often asserted that it cannot pay to plant new areas 
when existing timber cannot be sold at remunerative prices ; 
but upon what basis is this assertion made ? The price of timber 
or other commodity is high or low only as it is compared with 
some standard ; and what standard is to be taken with regard 
to timber ? 
The landowner who sells timber which he inherits, sells 
something whereon he has bestowed little or no labour : he is 
reaping the benefit of an act of self-denial exercised by some 
previous owner. If he has succeeded to his inheritance, the only 
cost to him has been the succession duty on the timber he has 
inherited; if he has purchased his estate, he has bought the. 
timber at its market value, based on the then existing prices. In 
the former case the standard is low, and prices below those at 
present obtainable will leave a fair residue. In the latter case 
the standard will be the price given. As a rule — and it is a 
fair one — the waste will more than cover the cost of felling. 
Timber, in fact, represents latent, or rather inactive, wealth, 
whilst it is standing; but by judicious management this state 
of inactivity may be made accumulative, whereas by neglect of 
ordinary rules of forestry, waste will assuredly occur. 
By latent or inactive wealth is meant not the absence of 
accretive power, nor the absence of the power of decretion, but 
that it is dormant or locked up. The state of English wood- 
lands proves, only too conclusively, that landowners have looked 
upon their wealth in this respect as something which requires 
no care, and upon which they can draw at will to meet the 
various demands upon them. Until they can be brought to 
