Introduction 3 



attention to the principles of forestry, the aim and object of which is 

 to produce, from a given area, the maximum amount of marketable 

 timber under varying conditions. Another point is that the timber is 

 usually placed on the market in uncertain quantities, so that timber 

 merchants find it hardly worth their attention when they can buy 

 exactly what they want from abroad. It is not infrequently the case 

 that timber is felled prematurely in order to provide money for the 

 proprietor, with the result that the ultimate crop is ruined. This is 

 equivalent to the action of the tenant farmer who " farms to go." 

 The amount of timber cut out of a wood each year should not be 

 more than the amount produced in the same period. The timber 

 cut from the wood may be regarded as the income ; whereas the 

 trees which are left, and the ground on which they stand, 

 represent the capital ; and care must be taken that this capital is 

 not diminished. 



The amount of timber produced each year is termed " annual 

 increment" An ordinary computation, for land of average quality, 

 is 50 cubic feet per acre per annum. To get the best return from 

 land, there must be a " Working Plan " ; in other words, a definite 

 system which maps out the future of a wood, and which ensures a 

 periodic fall of timber and a periodic planting, the result being a 

 periodic income of constant amount. The formation of such a 

 working plan involves an intimate knowledge of forestry, especially 

 that branch of it which is termed "Assessment of the Locality." 



The answer to the question, " Does forestry pay ?" therefore, 

 depends upon whether or not its operations have been conducted 

 under competent supervision. In the former case, the reply is 

 emphatically " Yes." This is amply proved by the importance 

 given to economic forestry in such countries as Germany ; but, as 

 an illustration from this country is likely to offer more convincing 

 testimony, the reader is referred to the following figures taken from 

 J. D. Sutherland's book, "A General Description of the Woods on 

 the Appin Estate in Argyllshire, belonging to Mr. J. R. MacAlpine- 

 Downie of Appin," 1908 : 



