ON THE ADVANTAGES OF GROWING PIT-WOOD TIMBER, 285 
These are clean, smooth, even sized, and well grown, and orders 
can be supplied with promptitude and to any required number. 
It cannot therefore be expected that odd lots of pit-wood grown 
in this country will always command top prices. A large planta- 
tion should be arranged for, and added to year by year, to allow 
of a steady out-put. At the same time, an odd lot of well grown 
props will command a fair price. 
At forty years such a plantation as I have instanced might 
show trees of 51 feet in height, and 3600 cubic feet per acre 
(which estimate is taken from the Raith Estate Management 
Scheme). This would supply sleepers, round bars, and other 
timber required by the collieries, and would be valued per cubic 
foot, and not by the foot-run, as instanced in the twenty-year-old 
plantation above mentioned, which only provided pit-props. 
For the guidance of those proposing to plant for pit-wood, I 
would recommend that the most careful attention be given to the 
proposed situation. ‘The trees already growing in the neighbour- 
hood will generally give some indication of what can be done, 
although they are too often coarse, thick-butted, and top-heavy, 
owing to over-thinning and want of shelter, to show clearly what 
they might have been if properly grown. Almost any sort of 
soil will suit coniferous trees of one sort or another if the drain- 
age, artificial or otherwise, is right, and the altitude, say under 
1000 feet. Good access to the railway or to the pits direct must 
be provided for, for the nearer the plantation is to the market the 
less will be the cost of carriage. 
A large area must, if possible, be laid out for planting to 
allow of a steady supply of props annually. 
The different sorts of trees are better kept distinct. The soil 
varies, and what suits one class may not suit another. 
Every rabbit should be killed, and arrangements should be 
made to keep the stock down. Not only is this necessary in 
order to avoid the great cost of netting, but, what is of far 
greater importance, to prevent damage to the trees when they 
have come to such a size that it is too late to beat up or fill in 
the blanks, producing in consequence coarsely-grown trees quite 
unfitted for props. The blanks also often lead to blow-downs. 
In\ giving my estimate of the value of a twenty-year-old wood, 
I do \not forget that it is an estimate which is quite open to 
criticism. The price of Swedish props, viz., 4s. 6d. per roo feet, 
might not be given unless the quality of the home-grown article 
