GROWING TIMBER FOR PROFIT IN THE UNITED KINGDOM. 27 
if t acre costs £8 o o toa fence, 
then 4 acres will cost £4 © o per acre,! 
RG tee Seg DA et as cameo) “ 
64 ” ” ” L lo Le, ” 
1024 5, oF) ee: Ao au es) ” 
All economies are more easily carried out on large areas than 
on small ones, and the results are also more marked. Better men 
can be employed, and a good system is more feasible. Good 
roads can be constructed or tram-lines laid down, enhancing 
the price of the produce, with many other things which smaller 
areas would not warrant, but which tend (though perhaps in- 
directly) to cheapen the cost of production. 
2. AMOUNT OF MATERIAL PRODUCED. 
We have, I think, every reason to feel confident that it is 
possible to make good progress in this direction. Without 
going into the history of British forestry, it is enough to say 
that it is now generally admitted that our foresters were, up to 
very recent years, taught to over-thin woods at all stages of 
their growth, but especially during the first thirty years, to an 
extent that has caused great loss, not only to the owners of the 
woods upon which they operated, but to the cause of sylviculture 
generally. Little distinction was made in the treatment of 
shade-bearers, such as beech, silver fir, and spruce, and light- 
demanding trees, such as larch. The fact that a certain kind 
of tree was a strong shade-bearer, was looked upon as a draw- 
back, as it would not clear its lower branches satisfactorily in 
the open woods of carefully-spaced standards, which were looked 
upon as the szze gua non of correct forestry. It does not seem 
to have occurred to these men, clever foresters though they 
were, that shade-bearing attributes are one of the highest 
qualifications a tree can possess, as the stronger its powers are 
in this respect, the heavier is the crop that can be produced per 
acre. Furthermore, when the object aimed at is the production 
of the greatest quantity of saleable timber, this attribute is of 
two-fold value, as, to secure long, clean timber, a thick crop 
must be grown (there is no other way of cleaning the stems), 
and, conversely, if you aim at the heaviest obtainable crop, you 
1 This presumes, of course, that all such different areas fenced are in squares, 
or in similarly-shaped rectangles, in each case.—HONn, ED. 
