344 
The Principles of Furestry. 
of even the working foresters without State-aided education. 
Areas would have been kej^t intact, not necessarily under fully 
developed timber, but in some stage of tree growth. There 
would have been no area lying waste and unproductive. More 
than this, land not remunerative under the plough would have 
been planted, and the area of woodland would have largely in- 
creased. As it is, notwithstanding the fact that large tracts are 
lying idle and waste, very little extension of planting is taking 
place. 
It is, however, never too late to mend, and if landowners will 
only rouse themselves and act, a very different state of things 
may exist in an early generation. Landowners are not asked 
to exercise self-denial or to sacrifice anything to benefit the 
nation directly ; they are asked to improve what they possess, 
and to extend their possession in timber, and indirectly to 
benefit the nation by adding to its substantial wealth, and by 
giving work to the unemployed. 
True, it may be diSicult to find the necessary capital, but 
this is by no means an insurmountable difficulty. If the capital 
so found be judiciously expended in the planting of new areas — 
areas now lying idle — the return is certain ; it only becomes 
uncertain when the work is carried out recklessly and unwisely. 
If the foregoing remarks are summarised they will result in a 
direct indictment against the existing management of our woods 
and plantations, and in the condemnation of the system of waste 
so evident in the neglected condition of the timber. To support 
the conclusions arrived at it is only necessary to turn to the 
Eeport of the Select Committee on Forestry, and to the evidence 
taken by it. In their valuable report (1887) they state : " Your 
Committee are satisfied that, so far as Great Britain and Ireland 
are concerned, the management of our woodlands might be 
materialh' improved." This of course implies that the present 
condition is unsatisfactory. 
The evidence so ably given by Colonel Pearson in the inquiry 
held in 1885 and 1886 is most valuable; and although he does 
not profess to have had much practical experience of home 
forestry, his foreign experience and the result of his keen obser- 
vation throw much light upon the question. He does not even 
claim to possess a scientific knowledge of the subject, and yet 
lie is fully alive to the necessity of teaching it to all would-be 
foresters and land-agents. His whole evidence condemns the 
present management of the home woodlands. 
Again, M. Boppe, Inspector of French Forests, in his able 
and interesting " Report on a Visit to the English and Scotch 
Forests by the Professors and Students from Nancy Forest 
