FORESTRY

the science of the right use and preservation of wooded areas; or the science and art of establishing and maintaining forests, and of managing them to the best advantage. The great forest tracts which have yielded and still yield the world’s supplies of timber have been entirely the outcome of natural agencies, but in the future human agencies will no doubt be more and more brou_.ht into play in forestry along with these, as the natural forests become used up. Arboriculture, as distinct from forestry, is the cultivation of trees for ornamental purposes or scientific objects. Forests are of the utmost importance to a country, not only from the direct value of their timber and other produce, but also from the equilibrium in temperature and humidity which they tend to produce where they exist, regulating, as they do, the steady flow of water in springs and rivers, and correspondingly reducing the violence of floods, and preventing denudation of the earth and siiting up of streams. Germany was the first country to reduce forestry (as distinguished from mere arboriculture) to a science, the subject being taught, both theoretically and practically, in several forest academies, and the curriculum including botany, mineralogy, zoology, surveying, mensuration, embanking, draining, . The German forests are all mapped out in blocks, for the management of which elaborate working plans are drawn up. Grazing is allowed wherever practicable, also the use of the forests for recreation. France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Italy are not far behind Germany in this important respect, but Great Britain is very backward, owing partly to the fact that so little of the small area at present devoted to forest (4 per cent of the whole area of the country) is in Government hands. Forestry, however, has been taught for years in connection with the Indian Forest Service first at Cooper’s Hill College, and from 1903 at Oxford, and elementary instruction in the subject has been given at Cambridge, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Dublin, Newcastle, Bangor, Wye, and the Royal Agricultural College at Cirencester (until its closure in 1915). Forest schools for working foresters have been established in the Forest of Dean, Rathdrum, and Penicuik. In British India, a system of Government forest administration has been developed with astonishing succe , and has had an important bearing upon the pre ure of famines, besides yielding a revenue of (1932-3) £133,425 522 FORESTRY to the Central Government and £3,084,195 to the Provincial Governments. The only considerable timber-exporting countries in the world are Ru ia, Sweden, Norway, and Canada, and the first and last have still forests of enormous value. America is, of all regions of the world, the most largely covered with wood; yet in Canada more vigorous Government action is urgently needed, the wastage having been so enormous that some kinds of trees, notably the Weymouth pine, are almost extinct. In the United States the forest wealth has been vastly decreased, yet the States have still 495,879.000 acres of forest or about one-fifth of the total area of the country, and more than twenty forest a ociations show and maintain the public interest in forestry. In Britain, since the European War, a Government Forestry Authority has been created. Its headquarters are at 22 Grosvenor Gardens, London, S.W. Since 1920 it has been responsible for planting 80,000 acres of new forest. The Government also maintains a board for research into forest products, which has a laboratory at Princes Risborough. Scientific Forestry. In the practice of scientific forestry there are two main objects kept in view. (1) To provide timber and various by-products. Different qualities are requisite in the kinds of wood used for different purposes, as, for instance, in the building of houses, ships, bridges, vehicles, ., in house decoration, in the manufacture of furniture, musical instruments, sporting implements, pencils, &&. Hence great attention must be paid to the quality and value of the wood produced. By-products, too, are often of great importance, sometimes of more importance than the timber itself; among these may be mentioned tar, turpentine, resin, tanning materials, . (2) To furnish such a condition of cover as will most favourably affect the climate of the neighbourhood. Situation, density, extent, and height are important considerations in this respect.; Where an existing forest is being brought under organization, the probjlerms presented are far simpler than where anew forest are a is being formed. Broadly, they may be grouped under surveying, valuation, and administration. In constructing a new forest, after the site has been selected, it becomes nece ary to consider the question of profit on capital expenditure, and this will depend largely on the judicious selection of trees suitable to the soil and climate, on easy communication with important markets, and on the attention paid to by-products. The grouping of trees, the division of the forest into districts, the methods of felling, the amount felled yearly, questions of pruning and thinning, ., need the most careful attention. In forming a new forest it is generally advisable to plant densely (about 6,000 or even more per acre). Mixed growths are generally preferable to the cultivation of one kind of tree only. Very often the planting of seedlings, from two to three years old, will be found more profitable in the long run than the sowing of seeds, though the latter is cheaper at the beginning. Several ingenious tools and machines for planting seedlings at a rapid rate have been invented, and have been used with great succe . Forestry is a subject of study at the Imperial Forestry Institute, Oxford, under a profe or, the students being trained for the forest services in India and other parts of the Empire.—BIBLIOGRAPHY: Forbes, The Development of British Forestry; J. Nisbet, The Elements of British Forestry: Sir W. Schlich, Manual of Forestry; F. F. Moon and N. C. Brown, Hlements of Forestry; W. H. Whellens, Forestry Work.