290 Practical Forestry 



But there is another point that I should like to touch upon 

 whilst dealing with the formation of plantations, and that is 

 that the work should, only be entrusted to the efficient and 

 practical wood manager, who is fully conversant with the 

 whole routine of woodland work. It is frequently urged 

 that forestry does not pay, but where this holds good, the 

 cause is always traceable to injudicious planting and Avrong 

 methods of management. No more can we expect the 

 gardener, gamekeeper, estate joiner, or even the land agent 

 to undertake economical timber culture than we could 

 expect the forester to carry out successfully the duties of 

 any of these individuals. Wrongly formed plantations .are, 

 unfortunately, far too common, in so far, at least, as adapta- 

 tion of soil and trees are concerned, the result being that, 

 financially speaking, the woods are a failure, and proprietors, 

 in consequence, fight shy of further planting operations. 

 When pressing home the question of the extension of planta- 

 tions, I have more than once been confronted by the state- 

 ment that past experience does not warrant further expend! 

 ture in that way. That this is true cannot be denied, in 

 many instances at least, but, then, as above stated, faulty 

 methods of management are alone responsible for the failure. 



Financial Returns from Tree Planting. Though it 

 must be admitted that, in the majority of cases at least, the 

 financial returns cannot be accepted as strictly correct (in 

 most cases they are too low), owing to the woods being 

 treated for other than commercial purposes^ yet in not a few 

 instances, where neither game rearing nor ornamental effect 

 have to be considered, the yield of timber and gross returns 

 for a stated number of years are perfectly reliable. Of 

 course, where game coverts and underwood, or where the 

 perfect development of the trees, as in ornamental planta- 

 tions, are matters of first importance, and require that the 

 individual specimens be scattered thinly over the ground, 

 the greatest yield of the best quality of timber cannot be 

 expected ; but where, as on various Scottish and English 

 estates, the trees are grown thickly together and solely for 

 tln-ir economic value, the case is quite different, as tho 

 returns given below will attest, 



