324 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 



noting in this connection is that, on land again 

 being brought under wood long after its original 

 clearance, the capital in timber can often be built 

 up and accumulated more completely and at the 

 least expenditure in money, though not in time, 

 by means of sowing in place of planting ; while 

 sowings, which come up thickly, will always 

 yield earlier and considerably larger thinnings 

 than plantations, unless these should happen to 

 have been made very closely, and at a cost almost 

 prohibitive in Britain. The 4840 plants required 

 per acre for planting at 3 feet by 3 feet will, even 

 if smaller plants be used, cost more when set in 

 the ground than the 2722 required for setting 

 out at 4 feet by 4 feet. But, in well-managed 

 woods of twenty years of age, after the first 

 thinnings have been made, the number of poles 

 really required to form close cover with proper 

 utilisation of the soil usually exceeds considerably 

 the whole initial number of plants with which 

 plantations are generally formed in Britain. The 

 influence of this is felt not only as regards the 

 actual capital in timber, but also as to the income 

 subsequently yielded by the woods. 



The consideration of these various matters will 



