322 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 



land for oak or beech may be * moderate ' or even 

 'good' land for pine, and would consequently 

 in all likelihood give far better ultimate returns 

 if thus cropped than by utilising it for the growth 

 of hardwoods. And, in either ,case, an admixture 

 of larch, on land suitable for its growth, will both 

 improve the woods and add to their monetary re- 

 turns. Suitability of soil and situation should 

 therefore be the first consideration in determining 

 the specific nature of the crop, if the timber it 

 will yield is at all marketable locally; because, 

 while the growth is most energetic, the quality of 

 the wood produced is at the same time better for 

 general purposes, and its market value is conse- 

 quently greater. 



These tables also show how conifer crops have 

 the power of almost trebling the capital in wood 

 during the period of greatest activity in upward 

 growth between twenty and forty years of age, a 

 point which has been previously remarked on. 

 But, obviously, in order that the gross capital 

 in wood may accumulate rapidly, and that the 

 advantages of a regularly-sustained p annual yield 

 may be gained, it is necessary that the formation 

 of timber crops, including plantations on land again 



