BRITISH FORESTRY.* This is an interesting, and not too technical,
book on a sub- ject which, at present receives far too little attention in this country. We have not yet realised that the annual returns from land which is devoted to growing timber upon scientific principles are very satisfactory. Even to-day, notwithstand- ing the careless way in which landowners are content to manage their woods, the profits of timber-growing far exceed those of any agricultural crop for which a ready market can be found. Upon the Chiltern Hills, where beech is extensively grown for the furniture-makers of Wycombe, well-managed beech woods are returning five times, and in many cases six times, the annual income that the adjoining agricultural land is yielding. In the case of the West Wycombe estate the account books show that, for over a hundred years, the annual income from the woods has been 30s. an acre. These are, perhaps, the best results that are now obtained in any part of England. In most cases the results are very different, partly owing to want of care, but more often to want of knowledge. Forestry is a science that must be studied, and an art that must be practised as much as medicine or surgery. Dr. Nisbet mentions a case of a landowner who, even under his present system of management, is getting more than £1,000 a year out of his woods, and who pays his forester 15s. a week. This means that a capital of over £30,000 in timber is being administered by a man of no education at a wage of £39 7s. 6d. a year; yet the scope for increasing the capital value and the annual yield must be enormous :—
" It can hardly be denied that British landowners, as a class, are decidedly apathetic with regard to forestry. So far as game preservation is antagonistic to good management of the wood- lands, that matter has been fully dealt with in the last chapter. Other three causes, perhaps in some cases equally powerful in this direction, are want of funds, want of encouragement offered by the State to induce landowners to plant waste land, and danger of fires along railway lines As most landowners have merely a life interest in their estates, and as the calls on their purse are many (beginning with the heavy demand on succes- sion), they have not, as a rule, much money to spare for forming plantations which are only likely to yield substantial returns after their individual tenure of the estate is at an end."
There is, no doubt, much truth in this. But, in a chapter devoted to that subject, Dr. Nisbet shows that sport and forestry are not incompatible. The damage done by rabbits is, however, incalculable unless the landowner is prepared to spend sixpence a yard or more on putting up substantial wire fencing, and this means £22 for even a square ten-acre plot. As for fires caused by railways, these are almost entirely preventible; and it is at least possible that the principles of the old case of "Vaughan v. the Taff Vale Railway Company" would be adapted so as to render the companies liable, since modern inventions in the shape of spark-catchers :-
" The weak points of British forestry are now much better known, and more generally acknowledged, than was the case but a few years ago. And the remedies are plain. These consist in improved technical instruction, both theoretical and practical, so as to provide well-trained, skilful wood-managers and wood- reeves for the better management of existing woodlands, and in greater encouragement and assistance to be given by the State to landowners than have yet been extended to them to induce them to form plantations on poor lands and waste tracts once under woods."
It can hardly be doubted that the planting and better culti- vation of woodlands in this country will be rewarded with enormous, and probably increasing, returns. The demand for timber is steadily growing, the amount which is imported constantly increases, and scientific forestry, where it has been put into practice abroad, never fails to produce the most striking monetary results :— "As matters are, our woods and forests now only aggregate about three million acres, and are so inadequate for the supply of existing requirements in timber and other woodland produce, that our imports under these heads amounted to the enormous sum of over twenty-five and a third million pounds sterling during 1899. Of this, over five million pounds were for rough-hewn and over sixteen million pounds for sawn or dressed timber, practically all of it coniferous timber from the Baltic, Scandinavia, and Canada, which might quite well be grown in the British Isles. Making a liberal deduction for the value of labour included in these coniferous imports aggregating over twenty-one million pounds, the undeniable fact is laid bare that Britain annually pays, and principally to foreign countries, no less than between ° Our Forests and Woodlands. By John Nisbet. London : J. M. Dent and Jo. Vs. ed.'
eighteen and nineteen million pounds sterling for pines and fir timber which could quite well be grown in Great Britain and Ireland. There are some sixteen million acres, now practically unproductive, available for this purpose; and if our existing woods and forests were managed on business principles, and State encouragement were given for making large plantations under economical management, Britain might in the future be self- supporting as to all the coniferous wood required for building
purposes If our present three million acres of wood- lands were trebled in extent, and were well managed on business principles, in place of being under uneconomic management as game coverts and pleasure grounds, as is now mostly the case with British forests, this would merely be able to supply existing require- ments, and no more. Nay, even if we had twelve million acres under forest, and all under the best of management, they would probably be just about able to supply the demand for timber likely to exist at the time plantations now formed may become mature. Past experience has shown that the demands for timber are constantly increasing, despite the more extensive use of substitutes like iron and stone for constructive purposes."
Ever since the landing of the Romans the destruction of woods has been the order of the day; and, in spite of the severe medireval forest laws, which were aimed more at the preservation of game than the protection of timber, little has been done in the way of planting trees and much in the way of cutting them down. The original British woods consisted of beech, oak, Scotch pine, birch, ash, Scotch elm, mountain ash, sallow, aspen, alder, and yew. To the Romans we owe
the English elm, lime tree, chestnut, plane, poplar, and walnut, which are now more or less established. But some of the most successful and profitable timber crops which can be grown are the recently introduced larch, Douglas fir, and Menzies spruce.
After a general introduction, dealing with ancient and modern forestry and the effects of the forest laws upon our woodlands, Dr. Nisbet passes the different trees in review. He tells us the most suitable con- ditions under which to grow them, the qualities which most enhance their value, the diseases to which they are liable, the profit which may be expected, and the combinations of high- woods and undergrowth which experience has discovered to be advisable. The oak, which is the king of trees, in general durability excels all British timber, and can often find a market at half-a-crown or more a cubic foot. Yet there is a chronic want of long, clean stems, unspoilt by knots; and we still adhere to growing our oaks so as to produce crooks for knees and ribs of wooden ships, when stems without branches are most required. The beech, which next in order is dealt with, is valuable when grown in pure crops as a timber tree, and also possesses an indirect advantage by reason of the quality it has of improving the soil and the growth of other trees with which it is mixed. The elm, which demands more
light than most trees, is not suitable for pure, thickly-planted woods. The value of the ash is increased by the rapidity of its growth, for the best quality is got at about sixty years of age. The alder, the birch, the lime, and the poplar are the chief soft woods, all having uses, and remunerative when properly grown under suitable conditions. For conifers the demand is great ; and they have the advantage of being easily and profitably grown on the poorest land, which may thus be prepared, by the fall of needles, for more exacting timber crops. All the conifers are, however, exposed to the danger of serious injury from snow and gales. The timber of the spruce-fir is, but half the value of Scotch pine, and it rarely thrives as well in this country. The Menzies spruce of
California receives, on the contrary, more consideration than it deserves. This book is an excellent contribution to the " Haddon Hall Library." It is full of information on a subject which should interest every landowner. Let us hope the country gentlemen will buy and study it.
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