THE SELF-SOWN OAK WOODS OF SUSSEX. 197 



underwood, will have diminished in value ; but we may fairly calcu- 

 late that the trees which have been cut in the course of thinning, 

 after twenty years, will have made up any loss in the value of the 

 underwood in this period. In fact, the produce is much more than 

 enough to make up the loss of profit from underwood. For the 

 remainder of the 100 years the underwood will pay very little, and 

 the thinnings will not produce more than enough to pay expenses. 

 In the foregoing observations I have assumed that underwood sold 

 at L.10 per acre is worth a rental of 10s., and that for sixty years 

 the underwood and tellar thinnings together will produce fully 10s. 

 per acre. From the latter period, and up to 100 years, when I 

 assume the timber will be fit for felling, little or no revenue will be 

 derived. The rental of 10s. per annum accumulated for forty years 

 at 4 per cent., gives, in round figures, L.50 per acre. The following 

 is an instance of a wood of 4 acres near Reigate, which was planted 

 in 1 830 with oak and other trees. I have no record of any 

 thinnings prior to 1866. In April 1866, twenty-eight oak trees, 

 containing 111 feet, and 208 tellars, were cut and sold for L. 42. 

 In April 1872, thirty-nine oak trees, containing 216 feet, were cut 

 and sold for L. 21. In 1873, seventy oak trees were cut which were 

 valued at L.40. This wood was sold, and the timber on it valued 

 very accurately, in 1872. There were 375 oak trees, containing 

 2600 feet of timber, and a few other trees, valued together at L.247, 

 being at the rate of L.60 per acre. The above sum of L.60 per acre 

 gives a rental of lis. per acre at 4 per cent., and beyond that, of 

 course, is the sum of money received for the thinnings. The trees 

 in this wood will not require much more thinning. It is, I think, 

 apparent that the oak-growing districts, in which underwood and 

 timber are grown together, produce a much larger profit on an ave- 

 rage of 100 years, than it is possible for oak plantations alone to 

 produce, as, during the earlier periods of growth, underwood pays an 

 income when the land planted with oak pays nothing. 



