I have often wondered why, in this country, farming and
forestry are so completely insulated from each other. It very rarely seems to occur to farmers who own their holdings that trees are a crop like any other vegetable and that, although the full financial return from their timber will not be realised for a generation or more, thinnings will yield in the interim the stakes and rails and gate- posts that every farmer needs. Most farms comprise a " problem " field—an odd bit of land that lies awkwardly and yields badly ; and I suspect that in many cases the decision to establish a plantation on it might prove, in the long run, economically sound, besides paying less material dividends in terms of amenities and sport. Perhaps the recent Forestry Commission announcement of a small subsidy for growing poplars may help to make agriculturalists more tree-minded ; poplars grow fast, and there are a lot of farm roads that would look the better for an avenue. Originally, of course, the forests which covered these islands were the first of the farmer's natural enemies ; so perhaps it is the relics of some atavistic impulse which tend, today, to obscure the fact that farming and forestry are not nedessarily incompatible interests.
Previous page
