WOODS OF THE NOVAR ESTATE. 43 



(assumed to be 80 years), and during this interval no final fellings 

 in High Forest of mature age can be made; but an increasing 

 amount of timber, the result of thinning the younger woods, will 

 annually become available ; the 265 acres of woods now ex- 

 cluded from the Plan will no doubt yield something; and, as 

 time goes on, it must be considered whether some of the more 

 backward portions of the younger woods (the oldest of which will, 

 25 years hence, be 44 years of age) should be cut for pit-wood or 

 some other purpose, rather than be allowed to stand for another 

 36 years to attain the normal felling age. This question may be 

 considered and decided in twenty years' time ; but it is probable 

 that the produce of early thinnings in the coniferous woods will, in 

 any case, be sold as pit-wood or for the manufacture of wood-pulp, 

 and the bark of young larch and spruce trees may prove saleable as 

 tanning material when a regular supply of it can be offered. 



Consideration has been given to the question whether it would 

 be good policy to purchase standing crops of trees from neighbouring 

 proprietors in order to maintain the present out-turn of manufac- 

 tured produce from the saw-mills, during at any rate a portion of 

 the time that must elapse before the younger woods become 

 available for the market ; but the conclusion arrived at is that the 

 proprietor would not be justified in incurring the risks that this 

 course would involve. 



Here, as everywhere else, it is difficult to reconcile sporting and 

 grazing interests with those of forestry. Shooting rents over the 

 whole area of the estate yield a nett income to the proprietor of about 

 Is. per acre ; grazing brings in from 6d. to 5s. per acre, according 

 to quality. The growing of timber will be a much more profitable 

 business than either of these ; but although grazing can be stopped 

 wherever it appears likely to injure young woods, the preservation 

 of game cannot be considered from a purely financial standpoint, 

 and a modus vivendi for the game and the woods must be found. 

 Speaking generally, the gamekeepers do not object to forest work 

 of any kind from the close of the shooting season up to about the 

 middle of April, and efforts should be made to get through as much 

 as possible before that time. 



In this connection, it may be useful to consider the position in 



respect of each item of work during the next twenty-five years : 



Felling in the coniferous woods, with the extraction of timber, is 

 carried on all the year round, and it would be difficult to complete 

 the work before 15th April; but the average annual felling-area 



