As time goes on, adverse criticism of the Afforestation Report,
at first drowned in a chorus of effusive acclamation, gains volume and authority. We may especially note the remarkable letter in Monday's Times from Mr. H. J.
F.R.S., whose great practical and scientific knowledge of arboriculture is based on the study of a lifetime, and is reinforced by personal inspection of the great timber-pro- dueing dietricts of Europe, Asia, and America. Mr. Elwes, then, deliberately asserts his die-belief "that we can under any cot ceivable conditions of State or private forestry compete in Price or quality with the virgin forests of Northern Europe and America, or that, even if the price of such timber increases se much as I expect and believe it will do, we shall ever produce at a profit anything like enough ordinary building timber to supply our existing or probable future requirements."
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