224 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
and to want of system in working. Forest management, like any 
other business, must be conducted on true economic principles 
if it is to be successful; success cannot be looked for unless 
continuity of aim, and persistent action towards the attainment 
of that aim, are maintained throughout the entire life of the 
crop of trees; and in view of the considerable number of years 
which must elapse between the planting of a wood and the time 
when it is fit to be cut down, even when timber of comparatively 
small size is grown, such continuity of aim and action are 
impossible unless all work be regulated by a plan or scheme, 
setting forth the object of management, and indicating at least 
the broad outlines of the measures needful to its realisation. 
In the absence of such a plan, it is inevitable that each successive 
proprietor or manager should follow his own line, which is sure 
to depart more or less from that of his predecessors, simply 
because no settled scheme of management exists which all are 
bound to follow. Haphazard work, and the frequent changes 
involved therein, have a most prejudicial effect on crops of 
trees; under such treatment, when the time arrives at which 
they should yield a substantial and long-awaited profit to their 
owner, they are often found in a disappointing condition. And 
this is not necessarily due to the negligence or incapacity of 
all or any of the successive proprietors or managers; in many 
cases it is due solely to lack of system. Woods treated un- 
systematically are, after the lapse of forty or fifty years, not 
infrequently found poorly stocked, incapable of satisfactory 
improvement, and adding but little to their value by the 
growth of successive years. Such woods do not occupy the 
ground profitably. It is manifestly in the interest of the 
owner that the ground which he devotes to the production of 
timber grown for profit should be kept fully stocked, and should 
be made to produce up to its full capacity; for there is then 
less necessity to restrict the areas which he desires to treat 
as game-coverts or as ornamental woods. Moreover, in propor- 
tion to the value of the produce they yield, fully-stocked woods 
are more cheaply fenced, worked and controlled, than woods of 
less density occupying a larger area; while, at the same time, the 
quality of their produce is greatly superior. 
It is with a view to gain the advantages and avoid the 
drawbacks above alluded to, that a working plan should be 
framed for all woods to be managed for profit; and in order 
