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land were planted at a cost of about £2
per acre, and the expense of looking after
the plantaiton has been very small. To-
day, after 17 years of growth, the timber
is being sold at rpoces that yield from
£100 to £200 per acre net profit.

WHY NOT HERE AND NOW?

If all this can be done in Germany
and America and Australia, there is
certainly no reson why it cannot be
done in New Zealand. And, as a matter
of fact, practical experience in this
country has already shown that tree-
planting can be made a highly profitable
venture within a relatively short space
of time. In our offical forestry hand-
book, "Tree Culture in New Zealand,"
the late Mr. H. J. Matthews cites the
case of a larch plantation started in
Canterbury in 1887 on poor, dry soil.
The land was worth £2 an acre, and
the total cost of trees, fencing, and
plantation was £12 an acre. Very little
attention was given to the trees during
their growth, and £1 per acre would
more than over this form of expendi-
ture. The total cost to the proprietor
was, therefore, £15 per acre. After
17 years' growth, the total value of the
"Deducated the initial cost of £12,
there remains a credit belance of £258
as a return for 17 years' growth, and
the land is in better condition now
(through the humus formed by the
annual fall of leaves) then it was at
the start." By way of contrast, Mr.
Matthews notes that portions of the
adjoining land are let for grazing at
2/ per acre a year--that is, 34/ in 17
years. "No other crop," says Mr. Mat-
thews, "whether grain-growing, mixed
farming, sotck raising, fruit or vege-
table sroving, can compare with the
above reuslts, while at the same time
not only has the soild been retained in
a fertile condition. but it has been
vastly improved in its productive capa-
bilities."

Taking all this into account, we may
reasobably infer that in this country,
endowed as it is with a mild and equable
climate and a bountiful rainfall, even the
waste land taht will not grow anything
else might be turned to highly profitable
use by tree-planing. there is an im-
mense amount of land of varying carac-
ter in these two islands, from teh rocky
slopes of the Southern Alps and the
graved flats of the Canterbury plains
to the pumice lands of the centre and
the farm lands of the northern half of
thi island, that could certainly be uti-
lised for afforestation prupoes without
interfering with the profess of settle-
ment or encroaching upon the areas
requried for our other staple industries.
Even to private enterprise, the pecuniary
prospects offered here by afforestation
should be alluring enough; and as we
have seen, no long time need be ex-
pected to elapse before the returns
begind to come in. As a final word of
encouragement tot he settler or the
farmer hesitating whetehr to plant trees
or not, I may quote from "Tree Cul-
ture in New Zealand" again:--"To most
farmers the raising of a crop of trees
from seed or from seedling-trees seems
a long and hopeless underatking. The
period required for a tree to attain
profitable size under favourable condi-
tions is, howwever, much shorter than is
generally supposed. In from 10 to 15
years from the time of planitn, all the
fuel and fencing material necessary for
farm use can be had for the cutting,
without in any way interfering with,
but, on the conrary, being an acutal
benefit to, the remaing trees."

THE DUTY OF THE STATE.

But it must now be sufficiently obvi-
ous that from the national point of
view, the work of Reforestation, or
Afforestation, is of such vast and far-
reaching importance that it ought not
to be left to private enterprise aon.
As Professor Chclich has recently point-
ed out in a ltter to the "Times," deal-
ing with the report of the British Affor-
estation Commiosn, "practical politics
clearly indicate that the State, corpora-
tions, and private propietors, must co-