title, “Reaping where we have not sown,” 
emphasises the difference between the old 
extravagant way of cutting down forests 
and the modern method of treatment as 
laid down by the most experienced 
authorities on the subject. ‘The chief 
difference between the old style lumber- 
inan and the forester is that the one re 
gards the forest as a speculation, the othei 
as an investment. The old method is to 
fell all the big sound trees of a desirable 
species in a forest without regard to 
their surroundings; withdrawing the ne- 
cessary shelter from a crop of seedlings 
in one place, killing others in the fall 
and removal of the timber; here felling 
all the seed trees -so that there will be 
no reproduction, there clearing the way 
for a worthless species that will promptly 
choke out the valuable ones; cutting the 
best sections from the fallen timber and 
leaving the tops and boughs and parts of 
the trunks to dry and rot and clutter 
the forest floor with highly inflammable 
rubbish. Old style lumbering started in 
incontinently with the axe. Conserva- 
tive lumbering begins with a working 
plan, which is a compromise between the 
forest and the market. For every tract 
of lumber the nature and habits of the 
forest and the distance and requirements 
of the markets present a new problem; 
the forester must devise and follow a 
fresh policy that will combine the largest 
returns and smallest expenses with the 
greatest productiveness of his forest.” Tt 
is obvious that some portion of this 
criticism fails to apply in the case of 
forests like our own, where, 
we have seen, the natural 
rate of reproduction is inor- 
dinately slow. But the facts I have 
cited should help us to appreciate the 
possibility of cutting out timber with 
the minimum of risk and injury to the 
Surviving trees. But valuable as the 
results of conservation on these lines 
may be, they do not represent any at- 
tempt to increase our existing supply of 
timber; and for an adequate remedy for 
the growing scarcity and dearness of tim: 
ber the world must look to some system 
of replacing old trees as they are destroy- 
ed or of planting new forests that will 
22 
as - 
some day take the place of the indigenous 
bush. Thus we pass naturally from Con- 
servation to the most important topic 
we have still to consider, 
REFORESTATION AND AFFORESTA. 
TION, 
The idea of planting new forests to ye. 
place the old ones as they are cut down 
is by no means a latter-day novelty. Swit- 
zerland had something like a forest sys- 
tem a thousand years ago, and by the 
fifteenth century she had developed 
highly practical and scientific methods 
of forestry. France, Germany and Italy 
have grown State forests for centuries 
past, either to check the devastating ef- 
fects of erosion or to replenish a failing 
timber supply, or, while combining these 
purposes, to secure a revenue from an 
investment of a portion of the national 
capital. And these countries have suc- 
ceeded in their experiments with great 
and permanent financial gain to them- 
selves, for the reason that a forest pro- 
perly administered on scientific lines is 
much more productive and valuable than 
a wild forest. ‘A large proportion of 
the trees in a wild forest,” says Mr. A. 
W. Page, “are not best suited to our use. 
They are of the wrong species, like weeds 
in a garden, or they are too old or - 
crooked, and have a variety of other 
blemishes; and while doing but little good 
themselves, they prevent the growth of 
better timber.” It is therefore open to 
us either to work through the original 
growth rapidly, and then plant a new 
forest on the devastated area—a course 
which has been followed on a large scale 
in Germany; or to turn the wild forests 
into cultivated timber preserves, as has 
been largely the practice in France. I 
“now propose briefly to refer to the suc 
cess that has attended the efforts of 
government in other countries to 
establish State forests, the means they 
have taken to ensure their success, and 
the outcome of their enterprise regarded 
as a financial investment. 
FORESTS OF EUROPE. 
It may throw some light upon he 
importance attached to the possession 
