via 



PREFACE 



paribus, the growth of timber is characterised by certain 

 girth indices and density factors, both of which are 

 interdependent, and which are dependent also on the 

 height growth, and if these and the height growth at 

 different ages be taken into account, the preparation of 

 yield tables is a comparatively simple matter ; and 

 results can be obtained which, there is ample evidence 

 to prove, are approximately correct for all practical 

 purposes. 



I have previously, in The Practice of Forestry, 

 published certain limited data as to the growth of 

 timber on average land, but since that date I have 

 investigated the matter much more extensively and in 

 much greater detail, and whereas, speaking generally, I 

 have no desire to qualify in any way my statements 

 made therein, as to the yields and returns to be obtained 

 from timber growing, yet, in the following tables I have 

 made many alterations in respect of certain details, and 

 furthermore I have given a vast amount of additional 

 data in respect of practically all common forest trees. 



With regard to German yield tables, the use of 

 which in this country is advocated by many, who assert 

 that such tables afford a fair criterion of the amount of 

 timber that may be grown, and of the manner in which 

 it should be grown here in Great Britain, I can only say 



that my own investigations are a direct negation of any 

 such assertion. 1 



There is ample evidence to prove that it would be 

 an act of the gravest folly if any attempt were made in 

 this country to grow mature timber in as dense a 

 canopy or in as crowded a condition as that which 

 obtains in Germany, and is indicated by the German 

 yield tables. 



That somewhat similar yields of timber as are 

 indicated in the German tables may be obtained in this 

 country by means of densely crowding the trees I am 

 willing to admit ; but to adopt such a course would 

 involve the expenditure of something like Is. 6d. for 

 every " shillings-worth " of timber so grown. 



It seems to me that those responsible for the 

 German tables have entirely ignored the economic side 

 of the question, and that they have fallen into the grave 

 error of imagining that the best practice is necessarily 

 associated with those conditions under which the 

 greatest volume of timber at any given age is attained. 



Whereas, if I may assume the oracular cloak of an 



1 Vide Chapter I., pp. 3 and G, where it is shown that, owing to 

 the different methods employed in measuring timber in the two 

 countries, the use of German yield tables is, ipso facto, rendered futile 

 in Great Britain. 



