80 THE NEW FORESTRY. 



end considerably. It is from poor lands of little value that the 

 most profitable results may be expected. The quality of the 

 soil makes so little difference to a crop of timber that we can 

 easily conceive of the latter ultimately reaching a value that 

 would greatly exceed an agricultural one for the same period. 



As regards planting, considered as an investment, pure and 

 simple, no reliable conclusions can be drawn from past 

 experience, as forestry has been conducted in this country, 

 because there has been no system, and crops have been poor 

 both in quality and quantity. A mistake too frequently made, 

 also, in estimating profits from woods consists in comparing 

 these profits with that from capital otherwise and safely 

 invested at four or five per cent compound interest for the 

 same period. No agricultural investments should be measured 

 by that test, because it is not a fair one, and few owners of 

 estates do sink their money, for long periods, in the way 

 suggested. What does not go for planting is usually spent 

 some other way on the estate, and probably not so profitably 

 as it might have been in planting. The view taken by the 

 Forestry Committee was the practicability of raising the value 

 of poor and second-rate lands on estates by planting, and 

 most sensible landowners look at the subject in that light. 

 What the owner of land has to consider is the value of his land 

 before planting and its probable future value under timber 

 crops. If he can substantially and permanently raise the 

 value of his estate, by planting the worst parts of it, that ought 

 to be a sufficient inducement, and under ordinarily good 

 management that can be done. 



The time that must elapse before a crop of timber can be 

 reaped depends on the length of the rotation period and the 

 nature of the demand. Much timber, both home-grown and 

 foreign, is disposed of under forty years of age, especially 

 larch and other fir, birch, ash, and sycamore ; and still larger 

 quantities between forty and a hundred years of age. Much 

 depends on the species planted, and intelligent management 

 There must be a certain number of trees to the acre at all 

 stages, and the greatest number of trees, of measurable 

 dimensions, in the shortest possible time, should be the aim 

 of the forester, who should dispose of his crops at any age 

 at which he can do so most profitably. The income from 

 woods ought to be as sure and as regular as that from other 

 sources on an estate. 



Good useful timber has always fetched a higher price in 

 this country than it has done anywhere else in Europe; we 



