PLAN FOR THE PIT-WOOD WORKING CIRCLE, RAITH ESTATE. 243 
will in some places be lost. This is a matter requiring immediate 
attention. 
Treated in the manner above suggested, the woods of this 
working circle will, without any doubt whatever, yield pit-wood 
of at least as good a quality as that which the mine-owners 
now import from abroad, and for which they pay at an average 
rate of 8d. per (quarter-girth) cubic foot at the pit’s mouth. 
EXPECTED YIELD AND FINANCIAL RESULTS. 
Of the 808} acres composing the working circle, 137 acres 
have been under cultivation, and, thus employed, are capable of 
yielding a nett annual rental of 9s. per acre; 4794 acres are 
suitable for rough grazing, yielding a nett annual revenue of 
4s, per acre; while the remaining 192 acres are waste, yielding 
nothing if not stocked with trees. The average annual cash 
surplus derivable from the whole of this land, if not afforested, 
is slightly under 4s. per acre, which is a maximum figure. 
The Older Woods. 
Precise data have not been obtained as to the yield that may 
be expected from the older woods during the first 20 years of 
the rotation. But the rapid valuation made of these woods 
(see p. 233), which now average about 55 years in age, and 
will average about 65 years when they are cut down, leads 
to the belief that the 2351 acres which they occupy will not, 
even after the crops have put on their annual increment during 
an average of 10 years, give a higher all-round final yield of 
more than 1500 or 1600 (quarter-girth) cubic feet of timber per 
acre, worth perhaps £30. There will be no further thinnings in 
these woods. There is no record of what the thinnings already 
made have yielded ; but assuming them to have realised half the 
value of the final crop, and allowing £4 for the original planting 
and fencing, and 3s. an acre yearly for tending and management, 
rates and taxes, etc. over the whole area, then these woods will 
have produced a nett annual revenue at the rate of 9s. 4d. per 
acre, representing, with compound interest on all items, an annual 
soil rental of 1s. 5d. per acre over the entire area they occupy. 
The Younger Woods and New Plantations. 
It may be assumed that, at the age of 40 years, the stock 
