Introduction to Fifth Edition
In my long experience of British Forestry, which, in a practical way, has extended over a period of forty years, I have become more and more convinced that in order to place it on a systematic and sound economic footing, State aid and the afforesting of large areas of comparatively waste lands are first necessities.
For the past thirty years I have not failed to urge upon the State, as well as private owners of suitable land, the pressing necessity of afforestation; and though in this matter a start has been made, yet this can only be looked upon as a faint, half-hearted attempt quite unworthy of our country and the vast interests at stake. As early as 1883, I drew attention to this matter in Woods and Forests, and at later periods in most of the leading journals and papers of the day; while in my evidence given before the Select Committee on Forestry, and in a paper contributed by special request to the Board of Agriculture, I went fully into the question, and pointed out what a boon to the unemployed, and how great a saving to the country would be effected by a well-organized scheme of tree planting.
Years ago I urged the Government to take up the question of the Larch disease, the ravages of which I then described as being little short of a national calamity. To the Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland, and the Royal Scottish Arboricultural Society, I have contributed twenty-three papers on different topics connected with forestry, for which special medals have been awarded, while my Practical Forestry has now passed into a fifth edition.
In connection with the afforesting of waste lands, I have travelled over the greater part of the United Kingdom and have examined much of the ground that could be set aside for this purpose, including the peat bogs of Ireland; while at altitudes up to 1,100 ft. I have formed plantations on the bare and wind-swept hillsides of Wales and Scotland, which to-day are proving not only a boon to the farmers in the way of the shelter they afford, but also a considerable source of profit to the owners.
The above investigations, combined with the examination of and reports on several of the largest woodland properties in this country, made at the request of the owners, have given me a wide insight into the forestry problem generally, but particularly with reference to our requirements in the near future, in view of the fact that the United Kingdom is by far the largest timber-importing country in the world.
A. D. W.