230 THE DEVELOPMENT OF BRITISH FORESTRY 



worth not more than Is. per acre annual value, was able 

 to give a nett return of 14s. lOd. per acre. This return was 

 obtained, firstly, by the low costs of planting (£2, 17s. 2d. 

 per acre), the sales of larch bark between 1866 and 1894 

 at £3, 10s. per ton, and the high average price of lOd. 

 per cubic foot obtained for larch thinnings in the wood. 

 By increasing the cost of planting to £5, omitting the 

 returns from bark, and reducing the value of spruce and 

 Scots fir thinnings, the authors calculated that a nett 

 return of lis. Id. would still be possible. 



Applying the results thus obtained to Great Britain 

 generally, it is safe to say that an average price of lOd. per 

 cubic foot would not be obtained for larch under thirtyyears 

 of age at any great distance from colliery districts, while 

 a great deal of mountain land above 1000 feet would not 

 produce commercial larch timber at all. As every forester 

 knows only too well, the chances are about equal of larch 

 being grown at a profit where it succeeds, and of its 

 entailing a heavy loss where it fails. In any scheme of 

 extensive afforestation it would be unsafe to reckon upon 

 more than one-fourth of the total yield being obtained 

 from larch, or any other species requiring certain con- 

 ditions as regards soil and situation which are not 

 universal over wide areas. If the experience of other 

 countries is examined, together with the known facts 

 relating to the growth of diflferent species in Britain, it 

 must be realised that the bulk of the returns from hill- 

 planting on a large scale in the future Avill be obtained from 

 hardy species which can be planted with some certainty 

 of their reaching a marketable size, and producing a class 

 of timber for which a steady demand will exist. On poor 

 ground spruce at high elevations, pines at lower levels, 

 and larch in suitable spots wherever it can be grown, 

 appear most likely to give healthy crops and produce 

 satisfactory financial results. On the better classes of 



