NOTE ON RAITH AND NOVAR WORKING PLANS. 99 



any but those whose trees are their special hobby : whilst if the 

 plans now in operation lapse there will be no object-lessons for 

 posterity. The alternative to the placing of woodlands under 

 trust or family settlement seems therefore to lie in some sort of 

 scientific control which successive proprietors may be disposed to 

 respect. Of course, when woods are once mortgaged, then full 

 security for the maintenance of forest plans will be at once 

 attained, because the chief condition under which the loan would 

 be advanced, and its main security, would be the adherence to an 

 approved Plan providing for a fixed annual revenue. It may be 

 reasonably expected, however, that apart from such forms of 

 compulsion as those touched upon, the common-sense of the new 

 system, new at any rate here, will alone induce forest owners to 

 adopt it. 



The cost of initiation in time and money may be considerable, 

 but once a system is adjusted, then the working of woods for 

 whatever purpose, of pleasure or profit, becomes as simple as it 

 was previously troublesome ; the object for which planting has 

 been done becomes assured ; the saving on outlays becomes large, 

 owing to the knowledge of the requirements for successive years. 

 And on the most careful and moderate calculations the gain in 

 returns and the permanent rise in market value of wooded 

 estates, due to the increase of bulk and the improvement in 

 quality of timber scientifically grown, is likely to be the most 

 remarkable and satisfactory result from the use of forest plans. 



NovAR, December 1899. 



