The Economics of Forestry. 233 



acre, at a cost for trenching and planting of £11 per acre, and thinned 

 at 14, 20, 28, 35, and 45 years, the last 180 trees being felled at 60. 

 He reckons the total cost at £44 15s. an acre, and the value of the 

 2,580 trees sold, after the failure of 1,400 from bad management, at 

 £189 lis. 8d,, making a net profit of £144 16s. 8d. per acre. He 

 further adds that good management would produce half as much again 

 at each stage ; but this may reasonably be doubted, whilst the large 

 preliminary outlay or tying up of capital necessary in tree-planting 

 must also be taken into account as opposed to the quick returns of 

 agricultural rent. Time is money now-a-days, and there is such a 

 thing as compound interest for annual ten shillings ; so that it would 

 seem better that we should only claim as the economic maxim of our 

 science, that a tardy, but safe, and by no means despicable return to 

 capital from land is better than none at all. There may be little 

 arable land in the south of England which it would pay to convert 

 into forest, but it certainly would pay so to treat our waste. 



It is of course economically indispensable that the tree should be 

 grown not only in the right place but also in the right manner. In a 

 successful forest no tree should remain after it has reached maturity, 

 and it is further necessary that the produce should be sustained, i. e., 

 that the trees should be systematically replaced as they are felled. 



The treatment of a forest is then a function of three variables, the 

 climate, the soil, and the nature of the trees to be grown. Forestry, 

 therefore, depends largely upon meteorology, vegetable physiology, 

 and the unnamed science of soils. It may appear strange that climate 

 — taken in a broad sense — should stand first; but it must be remem- 

 bered that by far the greater part of the bulk of our forest trees is 

 made up of the water they derive from the rain and the carbon derived 

 from the air. 



In conclusion it must be stated that this attempt to set forth the 

 basis of the science of forestry and its economic relations has been 

 written not so much for the forester as for the outside world, who 

 recognise but little of the importance of the subject. 



