CHAPTER IX. BRITISH ESTATE FORESTS. 



57. Outline of plan of management. 



IN the management of a British woodland estate, the general 

 principle is the same as in a large State forest, and that is, to 

 get the area fully stocked with the most suitable and profitable 

 species, and therefore to realise annually a constant maximum 

 yield equal to the mean annual increment, which will give the 

 greatest annual revenue. This, continued with the least possible 

 annual expenses, will result in the highest rent from the soil. 

 Two conditions are necessary to start with continuity of 

 management for at least one or two human generations, and a 

 definite object of management. Both these conditions often do 

 not exist, and even where they do, there will be often an in- 

 sufficiently stocked wood-capital and a very incomplete series 

 of age-classes. In such a case the working-plan, which will be 

 an organised attempt to convert the actual into the ideal, can 

 only be drawn up on very elastic principles and will aim at 

 getting the area completely stocked in the least possible time, 

 with annual receipts meanwhile to cover annual expenses. If a 

 plan can include several estates in the same district, it will 

 be very advantageous to arrange an organised supply of timber 

 for the local timber market, and for the producers to combine 

 to maintain a steady and attractive market, instead of each 

 selling separately at any price that the local trader likes to give 

 him. 



The preparation of the plan will be carried out in the way that 

 has been already indicated for other forests. A general survey 

 of the area will first be made, and some improvements may at 

 once suggest themselves with regard to the choice of species and 

 of method of treatment in different parts of the area. The first 

 object should be to maintain and improve the productive capacity 

 of the soil. The area will then be divided up into compartments 

 (and sub-compartments if necessary), which should usually have 



