Forest Management in Great Britain

Abstract

THIS book bears the imprint of the practical man and is based on the experience of an owner of woodlands during thirty years of management of his own estates. In his preface, Mr. Ackers alludes briefly to the training he went through to prepare himself for the work he has since carried out. In a foreword, Lord Clinton, himself no mean forester in connexion with his own woodlands, says, “It seems safe to predict that with the greater interest in forestry which is apparent to-day, a practical book upon the subject should meet with a very ready demand”. Lord Clinton points out that there has always been a tendency to criticize the system of management as practised in Great Britain. He admits that on many private estates no system exists and that often species are not suited to soils and environment. In consequence, the owner receives no regular income from the forestry portion of his estate and holds the opinion that forestry cannot pay. The author tells us that from the outset he had to regard forestry as a purely business proposition. He gives us an instance: “I held the opinion and still do that the art of raising high-class nursery stock has a bearing in many aspects on the problems of growing first-class woodland produce. I also felt that to do really well the grower should realize some of the tribulations and aims of the timber merchant.... With the object of correlating some of these ideas I now have 30 acres of commercial nurseries, some 2,000 acres of commercially-run woodlands and a sawmill utilizing some 1,000 cubic feet of timber a week. The nursery and sawmill were formed with a minimum of capital and have to pay their way or be closed down”.

Practical British Forestry

By C. P. Ackers. Pp. xviii + 387 + 14 plates. (London: Oxford University Press, 1938.) 15s. net.