PERIODICAL LITERATURE 921 



P. T. Maw records the discouraging produc- 

 UnproHtahleness tion by a Scotch pine plantation in Great Britain 

 of lately harvested at about an age of lOO years on 



Waste Land better class of waste land : "The results actually 



Planting achieved under excellent management afford ad- 



ditional evidence, if such were needed, that 

 great schemes of afforestation are doomed to failure so far as any 

 direct monetary profits are concerned." In spite of the exceedingly high 

 prices realized for timber, agricultural use, after spending $20 to $25 

 per acre for improvement, would have paid better. The plantation 

 comprised T,T,y^ acres, contained 97,600 cubic feet, not quite 3,000 per 

 acre, and brought around $20,000, or $62 per acre and about 20 cents 

 per cubic foot. The average height was 67 feet, indicating "a little 

 better than quality III." There were only 130 live trees to the acre, 

 or, according to the author, 6 per cent below normal. He then pro- 

 ceeds to show that "the methods advocated by the Germans of growing 

 timber are not based upon sound principles," making the mistake of 

 overcrowding in the latter part of the rotation. 



The author makes an unconvincing comparison between Schwap- 

 pach's yield tables and his own (Complete Yield Tables for British 

 Woodlands), which, however, do not extend to 100 years. As his 

 measurements are made as "super string measure under bark," "super 

 tape measure over bark," "super true contents measure over bark 

 (calculated)," we are somewhat puzzled how to use them in compari- 

 son with our or the German measurements, but, according to the 

 author, the volumes would be practically the same, only the average 

 volume per tree varies considerably, namely, 16.5 cubic feet for the 

 German and 36.4 cubic feet for the British tables. The author fails 

 to describe the character of the open-stand timber. He concludes that 

 "the undertaking never paid even 2 cents per acre rent for the land 

 if calculations are made at 4 per cent interest." "There is abundant 

 evidence to show that, in the majority of cases more or less waste 

 lands should be improved for farming purposes, and that if they can- 

 not, with advantage, be so improved, they cannot possibly be afforested 

 at a profit, unless enormously enhanced prices for timber are antici- 

 pated, in which case the matter resolves itself into a gigantic gamble." 



Forestry Statistics. Quarterly Journal of Forestry, April, 1917, pp. 112-116. 



