80 The Profits of Timber- Culture. 



might be relatively less. In a region of hills and valleys, there are 

 always some portions of the land that yield a much smaller return 

 under equal care than others. They may be valleys and ravines, 

 or steep declivities, or rocky and broken surfaces, and upon these a 

 grove of trees may often prove the best investment. 



285. In other cases, the soil may have been reduced to barren- 

 ness by improvident tillage, and then there is no better way to re- 

 store its fertility than by the growth of trees, and the accumulation 

 of a new supply of vegetable soil from the decay of the leaves. In 

 some sections of the country, where old fields have been abandoned 

 for cultivation, a crop of pines, oaks, or some other kinds of trees, 

 will come in and occupy the land, forming, in the course of a few 

 years, quite a dense growth, but generally not of the most profita- 

 ble kinds. The latter may gradually become introduced. It has 

 been noticed that where we find a woodland principally composed of 

 but one kind of timber, it is of comparatively recent origin, and 

 that a great diversity of species indicates that the woodland has 

 been growing for a long period. 



286. In the midst of a well-settled country, with no prospect of 

 increase in value from external causes, the probable revenues of 

 land under common forms of farm cultivation are less than in many 

 other kinds of property. The investment becomes especially desira- 

 ble from the security that it affords, and a reasonable prospect that 

 this value may be increased by improvements and the general ad- 

 vance in values as the country becomes older. There are many 

 pleasing associations connected with the solid and enduring posses- 

 sion of a lauded estate, and the comfortable independence that it 

 secures. The value of farming land varies with the general wealth 

 and capital of a country, and increases or declines, not only as af- 

 fected by the prosperity of places near it, but also by those which 

 may be more distant, but still large consumers of its products. 



287. Except in the suburbs of cities and villages, there is little 

 that is speculative in the possession of land, after the lines of trans- 

 port at ion, and business points of a country have been fully estab- 

 lished. Should a time come when forests are managed by great. 

 corporations, there is not the least probability that their capital 

 stock would be liable to great and sudden changes, in the ordinary 

 course of dealing. The returns would be slow in coming, bufc sure 



