A CENTURY OF FORESTRY ON THE ESTATE OF LEARNEY. 169 
In 1844 there were 1420 acres of standing wood on the estate, 
and from that date to 1905, say in the last sixty years, there have 
been 1370 of these acres cut, leaving thus only 50 acres of old 
home-wood now standing. Of the ground so cleared, 661 acres 
have been replanted, and 169 acres of new ground have in 
addition been planted, which thus accounts for the total of 880 
acres of wood at present standing on the estate. A considerable 
additional area of former woodland has been prepared, and is 
now ready for immediate replanting, whilst another area of about 
100 acres where beetle is prevalent is to be pastured by sheep 
for a few years before replanting is carried out on it. 
The actual financial return obtained during the sixty years 
from the 1370 acres of woodland cleared may be summarised 
as follows :— 
Cut and used for estate purposes, . : J, 1,953 
Thinnings and blown trees sold, : ; 9,666 
Final clean cut sold, . é ; , : 61,852 
Gross sum realised, . : | ve Tart 
The average sums realised per acre were, approximately :— 
Estate purposes and thinnings, etc., : . 4 8 
Final clean cut, . ‘ ‘ ‘ ) : 45 
Gross Average Return per acre, . £534 
Of the 1370 acres which were cut, about 500 acres carried a 
pure larch crop, about 100 acres carried pure Scots pine crop, and 
the remainder mixed larch and Scots pine in varying proportions, 
with a proportion of spruce in certain suitable places. The 
average number of trees left standing per acre, when the time 
for final clean cut arrived, was about 225 trees, which would 
thus stand at about 14 feet apart. This result is arrived at 
without making any deduction for shooting rides, woodland 
tracks, etc., which would have slightly raised the average 
number of trees per acre. 
It is difficult to estimate an average of size and price for the. 
mature trees all over the ground, as these vary so much with 
the soil, elevation, exposure, and age at cutting; but the size 
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