294 On the Planting of Forest-Trees. 



of Loch Odie of 2959 acres, and Loch Hoishnie of 2231 acres. 

 The expense of fencing and planting the former is stated at 

 16s. Sd. per acre, and that of the latter 15s. per acre. They 

 were planted with seedlings, and by means of the diamond-dibble 

 as before described. 



.The value of the thinnings of plantations must, in a great 

 measure, depend upon local circumstances, and therefore neither 

 the estimated value nor the actual money obtained for them in 

 one place will be realised in all. The thinnings of Scotch fir 

 planted by the Marquis of Bath upon land not worth more than 

 2s. per acre, paid more per acre per annum than the best land 

 upon his estates. The trees of a plantation of larch, Scotch, and 

 spruce, standing 10 feet apart at the age of sixteen years, no notice 

 being taken of the produce of previous thinnings, was estimated at 

 a value which gave an annual rental of 4/. 14.5. per acre per 

 annum upon land originally worth only 8s. Though these may 

 appear high returns and estimates, the actual proceeds of planta- 

 tions often far exceed them in particular situations. A gentleman 

 in Bedfordshire lately sold to a Railroad Company the entire crop 

 of four acres of a mixed plantation, which had been planted 

 thirty-five years, for 400/. per acre. These trees grew upon land 

 not worth more than a rental of 2^. 6d. per acre. This return 

 amounts to more than 11/. per acre per annum, to say nothing of the 

 previous thinnings. Disregarding all extraordinary calculations 

 and results, such as those above mentioned, and estimating the 

 thinnings far below my own experience and that of all persons 

 whom I have consulted, the entire crop of each of three separate 

 acres of larch, including the previous thinnings, and taken at the 

 end of twenty, twenty-five, and thirty years, I calculate would 

 produce the gross sums respectively of 51/., 119/., and 246/. 

 ^ Mr. Monteith, in his introduction to his ' Forester's Guide,' 

 gives a detailed calculation of the planting and management of 

 100 acres, chiefly with oak, and states the clear balance of profit 

 at the end of forty years, at 41,000/., after paying a high rent and 

 unusually heavy charges. 



Mr. George Sinclair, who has distinguished himself by his 

 knowledge of both field and forest culture, and upon whose ac- 

 curacy and judgment the greatest reliance may be placed, cal- 

 culates that the thinnings on an acre of land of the value of 5s. to 

 10s., planted with a mixed portion of larch, beech, pines, hazel, 

 birch, and oak, the latter with a view to the growth of naval 

 timber, will at the end of ten or fifteen years, according to local 

 circumstances, repay the average expense of planting, rent, and 

 management during that period, together with compound interest 

 at 5 per cent. ; and he estimates the profits of the future sales as 

 follows : — In thirteen years, or twenty- three years' growth, 24/. 



