94 ENGLISH WOODLANDS 



At present prices, larch with a rotation of 

 less than seventy-five or eighty years may be a 

 profitable form of accumulation. 



Oak woods requiring a rotation of 120 or 

 150 years may pay if there should be a con- 

 siderable rise in the price of oak timber. At 

 present prices the expenses will during the 

 rotation accumulate to a much greater sum 

 than can be realised by the sale of the timber. 



A timber planter has also this advantage over 

 other investors, that his capital is not likely to 

 depreciate violently. The fall in the capital 

 value of all first-class investments has been 

 remarkable. Some authorities whose opinion 

 is entitled to respect have expressed the opinion 

 that a serious rise in the price of timber is 

 certain. The opinion is founded on the expected 

 arrival of a timber famine and on the regular 

 appreciation during the last fifty years of timber 

 in the markets of the world. Unfortunately 

 there are some considerations which diminish 

 the probability of much rise in price. A timber 

 famine has often been predicted and has never 

 yet come. It is true that the consumption of 

 timber greatly exceeds the growth in the forests 

 which are now commercially accessible, but it 

 is possible that greater economy of conversion, 



