218 THE DEVELOPMENT OF BRITISH FORESTRY 



in the indefinite nature of the life of a timber block of 

 any size. With small areas of a few acres only it is 

 possible to plant a crop on land previously consisting of 

 arable or pasture, cut it clear at the end of fifty or sixty 

 years, and bring it to tillage or pasture again in the 

 course of a year or so. The profit or loss on such a crop 

 can be estimated, given the necessary data, to a shilling 

 or two. Such a case is merely that of a crop grown for 

 a long instead of a short period, and the land after the 

 removal of one crop is available for another of some kind. 



But large woodland blocks are seldom, if ever, treated 

 in this way. In these the stock does not consist of a 

 single cro}), but of a series of crops of different species, 

 ages, and stages of development, and the proprietor of a 

 block of this kind is rarely in a position to realise it at 

 any particular moment, or to devote the land to agricul- 

 ture or pasturage without a long process of preparation. 

 What may be termed the winding-up financial statement 

 of a large wood or forest is rarely possible. Such a block 

 represents not a crop, but a working or going concern 

 made up of land, buildings, fences, roads, growing crop, 

 and numerous other appurtenances, without which 

 timber cannot be grown any better than farm crops. 

 The profit or loss upon the component parts of such a 

 wood can scarcely be calculated more easily than the 

 profit or loss on the roof or walls of a factory apart 

 from the machinery, or the value of a piece of pasture- 

 land calculated apart from the grass which it produces. 



It would appear to be much the better way to regard 

 forest areas as a whole exactly as they must be regarded in 

 practice, than to select the data relating to small areas 

 which cannot stand alone under existing circumstances 

 and surroundings, but must bear much the same relation 

 to the remainder of the woodland as the apple bears to 

 the tree on which it grows. In such a varied and com- 



