S6 THE LARCH. 



years old ? Answer, ;^20 per acre. Or, if a planta- 

 tion sixty years old is worth ^30 per acre, what should 

 its worth per acre be at ten years ? Answer, ^5 +i^3 

 for original outlay in planting = ;^ 8. 



To explain still further this important branch of 

 forestry, it may be stated that it is only to plantations 

 about or below thirty years old that the original cost 

 of forming is added, and that plantations above thirty 

 years planted, or such as are sufficiently thinned, are 

 valued simply according to their prospective value. 

 Tot, though no further benefit could be derived from 

 thinning, yet the advanced state of the trees admits 

 of grazing the plantation (which was not the case in 

 its younger state), and this is often of more value 

 than the thinnings themselves are. The practice of 

 valuing young plantations as here described is objected 

 to on the following grounds — no interest being allowed 

 upon the original outlay, and no item put in to repre- 

 sent the rent of the ground. To these the reply is, 

 that both interest upon outlay and rent are included 

 in the one item, the value of the annual groicth, of 

 which the following is an example : — The value of the 

 annual growth of a plantation is, say, los. per acre, 

 ground rent 5 s. per acre, and original cost of planting 

 60s. per acre — amounting altogether, at five per cent, 

 simple interest, to 8s., which is the real annual cost ; 

 to meet which there is los., the value of the annual 

 growth, thus leaving a balance of 2s. per acre in 

 favour of planting. 



It depends upon the annual growth of the planta- 



