A British colonial administrator in Africa rode out one day to inspect a section of land that had been devastated by a storm. At one point he came to a place where giant cedars had been uprooted and destroyed.

He said to his official in charge of forestry, “You will have to plant some cedars here.”

The official replied, “It takes two hundred years to grow cedars the size these were. They don’t even bear cones until they are fifty years old.”

“Then,” said the administrator, “We must plant them at once!”

- The Scouter’s minute