PLAN FOR BLACKMOOR, BRADSHOTT, AND TEMPLE WOODS. 213 



larly distributed over the falls, and tending towards regular grada- 

 tion in age-classes. These objects cannot possibly be completely 

 attained within the next thirty wears; but the various steps re- 

 commended will all tend in this/ direction, and will enable 

 subsequent operations to be carried out regularly to completion 

 and to the attainment of a nor^ialv condition of both overwood 

 and underwood. \ 



Many of the conifer plantations will' in thirty years' time have 

 reached maturity, which is early attained on the poorer classes of 

 sandy soil, and will be in process of regeneration. But special 

 consideration of the treatment to be accorded to these depends so 

 essentially on their growth during the next ten years (1899-1900 

 to 1908-1909), that the present Working Plan does not in their 

 case look beyond this short period. At the end of this the 

 plantations should be in normal canopy, and the older crops 

 should be yielding remunerative returns in the way of thinnings. 



The formation oj Nurseries seems unnecessary for such small 

 areas of woodlands as are here dealt with. For whatever planting 

 is required, it seems preferable to draw the supplies from nursery- 

 men, as hitherto. 



Maintenance of Fences, Roads, Rides, etc. — No new works of 

 this nature are necessary. On the contrary, if sowings and 

 dibblings of larch, Corsican pine, and hardwoods prove successful, 

 this will enable considerable reduction of expenditure to be made 

 with regard to the fencing of young plantations. 



Financial Results of Proposed Plan of Working. — As the next 

 thirty years are in reality a period of transition for the copse- 

 woods (during which the overwood will be brought from a very 

 irregular towards a normal condition), as the monetary returns 

 therefrom during such period will depend more on the extent to 

 which the existing standards are cleared and utilised than on the 

 yield of coppice, as the value of the thinnings and partial clear- 

 ance of the older conifer plantations cannot yet be estimated with 

 any approach to accuracy, and as the financial status will probably 

 be greatly influenced by the formation of new plantations and by 

 concrete circumstances connected with their formation (e.g., if 

 sowings prove successful, so that fencing and the more expensive 

 method of planting may become unnecessary), it seems inexpedient 

 to attempt to make any detailed financial forecast. So many 

 specific data would have to be assumed, that the estimate could 

 have no practical value at present. 



