406 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



land. To ascertain the yearly value per acre, the valuer deducts 

 from the prospective value, as already obtained, the cost of 

 refilling vacancies, plus 5 per cent, interest on such outlay, 

 together with the expense of repairing fences, drainage, and a 

 sum to cover taxes. The balance, subject to the same rate of 

 interest, is then divided by the number of years representing the 

 age of the wood when saleable, and the result will be the yearly 

 value of the land per acre. This, multiplied by twenty-five or 

 other number of years' purchase, as agreed on, will give the 

 capitalised rental per acre, which, added to the present value of 

 the coppice already found, will give the transferable value per 

 acre of the plantation. In many coppice plantations, standard 

 trees are found mixed with the coppice, and their value must be 

 taken into account in the valuation. This will be ascertained by 

 valuing them according to the class to which they belong, and by 

 the methods already described. 



Conclusion. 



In the foregoing paper I have endeavoured to describe briefly 

 the methods used for computing the transferable value of different 

 classes of woods and plantations. That crops are frequently not 

 in the good condition they might be is a fact which the land- 

 owners in this country are awakening to, and with proper 

 management a much better return might be got for the capital 

 represented by the soil and growing timber. Already, I am glad 

 to note, Mr Munro Ferguson, the Duke of Bedford, the Earl of 

 Selborne, and other landowners, have had the wooded portions of 

 their estates surveyed by competent experts, and carefully pre- 

 pared Working Plans have been drawn up for their future 

 management. The economic advantages to be derived from a 

 well-conceived Working Plan have been ably set forth by Dr 

 Nisbet and other well-known writers. But from the valuer's 

 standpoint the valuation of woods planted and managed under a 

 Working Plan will be much simplified, the data on which his 

 valuation is based being easily arrived at from the records which 

 must be maintained under such a Plan. It is to be hoped that 

 the advantages of a Working Plan will soon commend themselves 

 to other estate owners who have not yet realised them, and 

 who are at present inclined to look upon such Plans with some 

 suspicion. 



