64

26

1863 it was 10/- per acre ; from 1884
to 1893 it was 18/6 per acre ; and by
1900 it had risen to 22/6 per acre.
Taking those facts in conjunction, we
see that between 1817 and 1900 the
average receipts per cubic foot of wood
have risen by about 114 per cent, while
the net receipts per acre have risen
during the same period by over 460
per cent. "Surely," as Professor Sch-
lich remarks on concluding this analy-
sis, "here is an incontrovertible proof
of what scientific and systematic man-
agement of woodlands can achieve."

I have probably said enough to con-
vince most people that forestry properly
conducted affords an extremely lucrative
form of investment either to the State or
the individual, and tha the successful
experience of other countries fully justi-
fies us in making experiments on similar
lines here. The reason for such an un-
dertakin is, of course, the ever-growing
certainty that our timber supply is be-
ing rapidly reduced, and that we already
find it unequal to the deman. And if,
after we have considered the risks and
perils involved in Deforestation, as al-
ready set froth in my earlier articles--
the destruction of soil, the flooding of
rievers, the deterioration of climate, and
the reduction of the country's productve
powers--if, beyond all this, some further
argument is needed to strengthen the
ease for Afforestation, we may find it in
the large pecuniary profits always
secured by either States, corporations, or
private individuals who have undertaken,
under favourable conditions, the lucra-
tive work of tree planting.

PRIVATE ENTERPRISE.

It may be as well to remark here that
so far as the general benefit of the coun-
try is concerned, this can be secured
equally well whether the trees are plant-
ed by the State or by private individuals.
And as an encouragement to those per-
sonds who may feel inclined to make prac-
tical use of the experience of ther coun-
tries in this matter, I may point out
that by far the best financial results
that have been secured from tree plant-
ing in England and America are due
more or less to private initiatives. In
Perthshire not long since, a plantation
of Douglas fir just forty years od,
was valued at £200 an acre to the enter-
prising grower. But forty years is a
long time to wait, and pecuniary results
can be secured by judicious management
in a much shorter period than this. In
Kansas, we are told by Mr. T. H. Will,
secretary of the American Foresty As-
sociation, in catalpa plantation, 10 years
old, has been valued at £40 per acre;
another in Nebraska, 16 years old, gave a
net return of £31 per acre. Cedar planta-
tions, twenty-five years old, produced £40
per acre in the United State, and Eruo-
pean larch, of the same age, is worth
from £40 to £60 an acre. A mixed plan-
tation, started by a director of one of
the Western railways in Kansas on two
square miles of waste land, after 25
years' growth, yielded more than £25,000
worth of timber to the company in one
year. Another plantation, owned by
another railroad company, has been de-
scribed by Professor Fifford, or Cornell
University. Within twenty-five years
this are of 400 acres could show a clear
net profit of £28 per acre, and a cross
value of early £79 an acre. These
figures should be sufficient to impress the
ordinary commerical imagination deeply
enough. If any of my readers would
prefer an illustration taken from nearer
home, I may quote an interesting case
from Australia. Near Creswick, in Vic-
toria, there is some wretchedly poor
land, which has been planted with several
varieties of pine. "The paricularly hill-
side chosen," we are told. "is lightly
covered with a lifeless clay soil, often so
scanty as to lay bare the sandstone.
The natural vegetation was of the most
meagre and valueless kind. In the early
days miners riddled the area for gold,
and when the officers of the Govenment
took charge itwas a hillocky waste."
About 700 acres of this very unpromising