PLAN FOR THE PIT-WOOD WORKING CIRCLE, RAITH ESTATE. 225 
that the nature of such a plan may be fully understood, certain 
matters with which it deals will now be explained. 
A Working Plan, then, is a plan or project which, in the 
words of the late Mr D’Arcy, “sets forth the purpose with 
which a forest should be managed, so as to best meet the 
interests, and therefore the wishes, of the owner ; and indicates 
the means by which this purpose may be accomplished. In 
other words, it is a forest regulation prescribing the application 
of certain cultural rules, and the execution of certain works, 
in order to produce a given desired result. . . . Both the 
object sought, and the means by which that object can be 
attained, depend on a variety of facts relating to the forest 
and its management ; and, in order that the prescriptions con- 
tained in the Working Plan may be fully understood, it is 
necessary that these facts should be stated, and the manner 
in which the prescriptions have been deduced from them 
explained.” These facts, deductions, and prescriptions are 
recorded in a report which forms the Working Plan. 
The stock grown on the ground constitutes the Yorest Capital, 
which yields annual interest in the form of a certain amount 
of new wood laid on to each of the individual trees composing 
the crop; and this amount may be taken out every year, in 
the form of a number of trees of equivalent volume, without 
diminution of the capital; for the timber removed is replaced 
by the growth of the next year. Indeed, if the forest capital 
be complete, the proprietor of the day is not only entitled to 
the wood-interest as his legitimate liferent, but he ought to take 
it annually or periodically, in order to maintain the organisa- 
tion of the woods, and by so doing he will act in the best interest 
of his estate. But before determining the form in which the 
wood-interest, or Yield, of the forest is to be taken, it is 
necessary, when working for profit, to consider the kind of 
material that can most profitably be grown, and the size 
at which the trees first begin to yield it. It then becomes 
possible, with due regard to the rate of growth of the trees 
from that age onwards, to determine the age at which the 
crop should be cut down and utilised, the ground being then 
re-occupied by a young crop, which in its turn will be cut at 
a like age. This age indicates the length of the ‘“ Rotation.” 
But it will be readily understood that, if a crop of a certain 
fixed age is required annually, and if its volume or the area it 
