REPORT ON FOREST TREES. " 27 



planting, will be a forest of timber fit for the building of the largest 

 class of ships in Her Majesty's navy. It will have been thinned out 

 to 400 trees per acre. Each tree will contain, at the least, 50 cubic 

 feet, or one load of timber, which at the low price of one shilling per 

 cubic foot, only half its present value, will give X 1,000 per acre, 

 or in all, a sum of .£6,500,000 sterling. Besides this, there will 

 have been a return of X7 per acre, from the thinnings, after de- 

 ducting all expense of thinning and the original outlay of planting. 

 Further still, the land on which the larch is planted, is not worth 

 above ninepence or one shilling per acre, yearly rent. After the 

 thinnings of the last thirty years, it will be worth ten shillings per 

 acre, by the improvement of the pasturage." 



Montieth, an experienced timber planter and appraiser of timber 

 land, gives the following statement of the profit of an oak plantation 

 for twenty years, on one hundred acres of land, worth five dollars 

 per acre, yearly rent, and I have placed the estimate in dollars, in- 

 stead of pounds sterling. 



If the proprietor, he says, plants 100 acres of ground, the trees 

 being four feet distant from each other, each acre will contain 3422 

 plants. 



Plants and planting per acre, $30, $3000 00 



Rent of land for 10 years, at $5 per acre, 5000 00 



Interest on rent, 1125 00 



Expenses of thinning, pruning and trimming, for 10 years, 



at $5 per acre, 5000 



Total expenditure, $14,125 00 



Deduct produce of 1000 trees, thinned from each acre, 

 1st 10 years, at $10 per acre, $1000 00 



Deduct value of 2422 trees per acre, 



remaining, at $37 50 per acre, 3750 00 4,750 00 



9,375 00 



Balance at the end of 10 years, 9,375 00 



Expense of thinning and pruning, for 2d 10 years, at $10 



per acre, 2000 00 



Rent of land for same period, at $5 per acre, per annum, 6000 00 



