Trees for Economic Planting 65 



With the most satisfactory results has the timber been 

 used for railway sleepers in fact four sleepers laid experi- 

 mentally have stood the wear and tear quite as well as those 

 of Baltic timber, alongside of which they were placed. For 

 roofing purposes the wood has likewise attained great fame, as 

 it is found to stand vicissitudes of dry and damp alternately 

 better than almost any other home-grown timber. 



The coniferous trees just treated of are about the only 

 kinds that can be recommended for profitable planting in 

 this country. 



The Atlantic Cedar and Japanese Larch might be added 

 to the list, but present experience will not justify us in 

 bringing any of these prominently to notice. 



Twenty-five years ago, at the instigation of the then Earl 

 of Derby, the writer formed several plantations on the Hoi- 

 wood Estate in Kent. At the outset it may be well to state 

 that these plantations were not formed with the object of 

 producing valuable timber, but rather for the ornamentation 

 and privacy of the newly-acquired property. The trees 

 used were the Scotch, Corsican, Austrian and Weymouth 

 pines, Douglas fir, the larch, and several species of hard- 

 woods. As all have succeeded well under exactly similar 

 conditions, the following notes as to the rate of growth and 

 production of timber, both of which are unusually great, 

 during a period of twenty- five years may be instructive. 



Previously to being planted the land, which may best be 

 described as a hungry loam on a gravelly subsoil and shel- 

 tered, was let out for rough grazing and the cultivation of 

 strawberries and other fruit. 



The cost per acre of forming these plantations was : 



*. d. 

 Pitting, 2,722 at Is. per 100 . . . .172 



Planting . 110 



Trees, at 40s. per 1,000 580 



7 16 2 



This price may appear both high and low, but in connexion 

 with the former it should be explained that the coniferous 

 trees when planted were about 16 in. high, the others about 



F 



