138 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 



beechwoods are returning five times, and in 

 many cases six times, the annual income that 

 the adjoining agricultural land is yielding. No 

 more profitable timber than beech, he is satisfied, 

 can be grown in this district, because at the pre- 

 sent time his firm is able to make from is. 4d. to 

 is. 6d. per cubic foot of the best trees, and from 

 lod. to is. 3d. for smaller and rougher timber. 

 It is true that this does not compare with the 

 value of oak and ash, but these classes of timber 

 cannot be grown as ' a crop ' in the same way 

 that beechwoods are treated and thinned at fre- 

 quent intervals. 



The experience of Mr. Daniel Watney, a Past 

 President of the Institution, was also much to 

 the same effect. The best results from timber 

 with which he was acquainted came from the 

 Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire. In the case 

 of the West Wycombe estate, with which he 

 was concerned some few years ago in the suit 

 of Dashwood v. Magniac^ the estate books for 

 over 100 years showed the annual income from 

 those woods as 305. an acre. They are situated 

 on the tops of hills, on land which is not really 

 fit for agriculture, and which if it were broken 



