i 9 4 ENGLISH ESTATE FORESTRY 



market and the demand for the particular species, which 

 cannot be accurately predicted six months in advance. 

 Storms may create gaps in all age classes, which may 

 completely disorganise the regular plan of operations and 

 glut the timber market for two or three seasons. All these 

 contingencies cannot be foreseen by the forest organiser, 

 although his experience of forestry in general may render 

 him cognisant of their possibility. But the particular 

 manner in which they will affect his plan neither he nor 

 anyone else can anticipate, and its successful execution 

 depends more upon a combination of fortunate developments, 

 than upon any apparently exact calculations he may take 

 the trouble to make. 



It is evident, therefore, that the task of private forest 

 organisation, if based upon the recognition of all the 

 innumerable factors which influence the profitable marketing 

 of timber, is no light one, and is largely a matter of 

 speculation. The more one looks at the question, in fact, 

 the more difficult it appears to formulate any scheme which 

 will meet the various exigencies which are always arising on 

 private estates, and over which the owner or his forester 

 has little or no control. In large Government forests, 

 consisting principally of one or two species of tree, and 

 which have given rise to certain industries, such as pulp- 

 making, which use immense quantities of raw material, the 

 drawing up of a suitable working plan is a necessary and 

 comparatively easy undertaking. The class of material most 

 in demand, and which will bring the highest price in the 

 market, is known within certain limits, and arrangements 

 can be made accordingly for growing that class in the 

 quickest possible time. Or it is possible to ignore the most 

 profitable felling age to a great extent, and work the forests 

 on the principle of obtaining the maximum quantity of mature 

 timber annually, which would work out fairly well where 

 big timber was most in demand. In either case, both the 

 annual timber supply and working expenses can be regulated 

 in such a way as to ensure an annual nett yield, according 

 to the productive capabilities of the soil. The forest area 

 being always fully stocked, or as nearly so as practicable, is 

 not subject to those long and spasmodic breaks in the process 



