AFFORESTATION IN THE UNITED KINGDOM 623 



are as a whole a financial loss, and where more business-like 

 methods now prevail the figures available for short periods 

 are too incomplete to be of much value. It is then to countries 

 where forestry is established that one must look for the results 

 obtainable under present circumstances. Thus in Germany 

 careful calculations show that from 2 to 3 per cent, is as much 

 as forests will yield, with the exception of some under short 

 rotations, which may yield 4 per cent. It is sometimes forgotten 

 that the extent of the latter forests is limited not only by the 

 demand for the produce but more often by conditions of climate 

 and soil, both of which must be particularly favourable if a 

 rapid deterioration is not to be feared ; 3 per cent, is then 

 commonly applied for, and is reasonably to be expected from, 

 forest enterprise when the rotation is about eighty years. 



Compared with the premier Government securities which 

 now yield : Great Britain, 3*1 per cent.; France, 3*1 per cent.; 

 Germany, 3*6 per cent., forestry yields up to about ^ per cent, 

 less. And with the higher rotations necessary — for the oak, 

 for example — the accumulated capital is so great that 2h percent, 

 is generally as high a rate as can be expected. 



To repeat then, speaking generally, afforestation has at the 

 present time no purely financial justification, practical proof ol 

 which is only too strikingly given by the failure of a number 

 of forest companies formed in Austria towards the end of last 

 century. 



On the other hand, forestry has some financial advantages 

 peculiar to it. It provides means of employing large sums of 

 money for prolonged periods with great security, for, great as 

 the disasters due to fire, wind, insects and diseases have been, 

 these are only local where reasonable precautions are taken. 

 The disorganisation thus caused is in inverse proportion to the 

 extent of the property, and the development of means of com- 

 munication and of the world's timber market enable the imme- 

 diate loss to be greatly reduced where the crop affected is of a 

 marketable size. 



Intimately connected with the financial aspect of forestry is, 

 naturally, the supply and demand of the produce. An inves- 

 tigation in the case of a number of the minor forest products 

 would be interesting ; but here it will only be necessary to 

 consider timber in the chief forms in which it is placed on the 

 British market. 



