SYSTEMATIC FORESTRY 115 



crop would be at least 5s. per acre, and the cost 

 of planting £7 per acre. Five shillings per 

 annum for fifty years at 4| per cent, equals 

 £44*6255, and £7 at compound interest at the 

 same rate equals £63'2282 ; adding these two 

 sums together the sum on the debit side will 

 be £107 against a credit of £100 by the sale of 

 timber. This way of stating the account assumes 

 that the receipts from thinnings balance the 

 expenditure on maintenance, rates, and taxes ; 

 in fact, the thinnings from a wood that at fifty 

 years is sold for £100 per acre can have been 

 very few. An addition must be made to the 

 debit side equal to the excess of expenditure 

 on maintenance, rates, and taxes over the 

 receipts from thinnings. The exact figure of 

 this excess varies according to circumstances. 

 If this excess is equal to as little as 25 per acre 

 per annum the net return will be less than 

 4 per cent. £7 at 4 per cent, compound interest 

 in fifty years equals £49 ; 7s. per annum at 

 the same rate in fifty years equals £53, making 

 in all a debit of £102 against a credit of £100. 

 The most obvious fault in English forestry 

 is the absence of system. Felling and planting 

 take place at haphazard and not according to 

 a fixed plan. The absence of a system increases 



