EMPIRE FORESTRY
bodying new legislative principles such as financial provision over a term of years (United Kingdom); the reservation of a given area of State forest within a definite period of time (New South Wales); and the drawing up of working plans (Western Australia). We are now entering the period of reaction, and there are not lacking signs that VOVlS made in the hour of danger are already losing something of their poignancy. The Forest Depa1tments and their Work.- There are almost as many kinds of forestry departments in the Empire as there are States, ranging from the highly organized Imperial and Provincial Forest Services of India, through the compact South African Department, the somewhat loosely connected Dominion and Provincial Services of Canada, the 1110re newly established Commissions, Directorates or Conservatorships of the United Kingdom,. Australia and Ne\v Zealand and the Crown Colonies, down to the lov."ly forest officer preparing the way for a department in some backward country. Nevertheless it is possible to trace some common factors in their activities. 'fhe first is the large proportion of time expended in adU1inistrative as against technical executive work. The areas are so large and the number of trained forest officers so small, that this is unavoidable. Next, U10st departments are striving to get effective control of the forest areas, for \vithout it continuity 6f policy, which is the sine qUll non for efficient forestry, is impossible. Before effective control can be secured, Parliament has usually to be satisfied that the land is not required for agriculture and much time has consequently to be spent in land classification and forest demarcation. Fire protection is another activity in comtTIon, and in Canada ""and Australia at least, probably the essential and possibly the only effective large scale measure which is feasible under the present conditions of ,extensive working. Side by side with fire protection is the effort to secure regeneration of cut-over forests by natural lTIeans. Over and above all this, the average forest department has found time ,to do some planting and to encourage others to plant and to experiment with exotic trees (and especially with conifers where the demand for soft woods cannot be met from indigenous forests), but it is broadly true to say that in the great field of sylvicultural procedure the ground has hardly been touched.