president's address. 
631 
and centres of industry like Cobar and other mining districts is 
already painfully felt. 
There is an impression that forestry does not pay. There is 
certainly no greater mistake. The experiences of other countries 
prove it. I find that in 1884 in Baden the area of the State 
forests was 234,000 acres, producing a net return of £120,000 
annually; in Wiirttemburgthe area was 476,000 acres, and the profit 
derived was £237,400; while in Saxony, with a forest area of 
408,000 acres, the net return was as high as £330,000. Perhaps 
some might argue that although forests would pay in Europe, 
under the different conditions prevailing here they would not; 
but a little consideration will show that the conclusion is not 
warranted. If our hardwood trees grow more slowly — which is, 
however, not the case, at least on the coast — the produce is of 
higher value; and in the interior, where from lack of moisture 
they do grow slowly, the rental value of land is much lower. It 
can, I think, be easily shown that forest cultivation on areas 
which do not furnish abundant grass or herbage would produce 
at least five times as much income from timber as from grazing. 
Of course the Government would have to keep control of the 
timber, and not merely for a small fee give a man a license to 
destroy or cart away as much as he likes. 
Professor Bailey Balfour, in his Address to the Biological 
Section of the British Association in 1894, gives an interesting 
example of a piece of ground at Nover in Rossshire, which was 
worth from one to two shillings grazing rent. This land was 
planted with trees, and after 61 years of growth was clean cut in 
1883. The net yield of the land over this period was equal to an 
annual revenue of nine shillings per acre per annum. 
There are cases given in the United States Reports of worn- 
out sandy land being planted with trees and yielding a profit of 
twelve shillings and sixpence per acre per annum when cut for 
fencing posts. 
Forest conservation means not that no trees shall be cut down, 
but that the forests shall be cultivated as any other crop, and 
not wasted. Steps should be taken to prevent the spread of tire 
Q Q 
