IMPROVED BRITISH FORESTRY 323 



being brought under wood after agricultural or 

 pastural occupation, or after having been 'wasted' 

 and allowed to revert into wild moors or bogs, 

 should be continuous year after year. Without 

 continuity the best results are not obtainable, for 

 the capital in timber cannot then be adjusted and 

 distributed over the area to the greatest advantage. 

 It is only by regular annual continuity in forming 

 plantations that the requisite capital in timber 

 for large woods can be gradually built up and 

 this, owing to the rapidity of growth during 

 the pole-forest period of young woods in close 

 canopy, at a far less actual outlay than such 

 capital, when fully provided and properly dis- 

 tributed, is really worth in monetary value esti- 

 mated on its capacity for yielding annual returns. 

 At the same time a by no means inconsiderable 

 ' unearned increment ' takes place in the capital 

 value of the land bearing well-managed wood- 

 land crops, as the dead foliage of thick woods 

 of normal density improves the land by forming 

 humus or mould. This directly increases the 

 productive capacity of the soil, and consequently 

 raises its monetary value as judged by the prac- 

 tical standard of fertility. And a fact worth 



