APPENDIX. 



119 



The larch begins to make wood at twenty-four years of age. 

 At 50 years old it will contain 26 cubic feet of wood. 



60 " " 14 do. more. 



72 " " 20 do. more. 



In all, 60 do., or one load of 50 cubic feet, 

 and 10 feet more. 



These results correspond exactly with the quantities which the Duke 

 obtained at these respective ages. Larch appears to be on its greatest 

 increase for timber from fifty-seven to seventy-two years old. A larch 

 containing fifty cubic feet, or one load of timber, is quite fit for naval 

 purposes. At half that size it is suitable for every country purpose. 



With regard to other trees effecting a change of the ground, the fol- 

 lowing are the results of many experiments made by the Duke on the 

 subject. In oak copses the value of the pasture is only 5s. or 6s. per 

 acre for eight years only in every twenty-four years, when the copse is 

 cut down again. Under a Scotch fir plantation, the grass is not worth 

 G(l. more per acre than it was before it was planted. Under beech and 

 spruce it is worth less than it was before ; but the spruce affords ex- 

 cellent shelter to cattle, either from the heat of summer or the cold of 

 winter. Under ash the value may be 2s. or 3s. per acre more than it 

 was in its natural state. But under larch, where the ground was not 

 worth Is. per acre, the pasture is worth from 8s. to IDs. per acre after 

 the first thirty years, when all the thinnings have been completed, and 

 the trees left for naval purposes, at the rate of about 400 to the acre, 

 and twelve feet apart. Nay, so impressed was the Duke of the value 

 of larch, as an improver of natural pasturage, that he makes a statement 

 to show that the pasture alone, independent of the ship timber on it, 

 would increase the value of land by increasing its annual rental, so 

 that it itself would repay the whole outlay of fencing and planting, at 

 five per cent, compound interest. 



The value of larch tnoocl, exclusive of the value of the pasture under 

 it, may be estimated in this manner : — suppose the plantations are 

 thinned out by thirty years to what they are to stand for ship timber ; 

 that is to 400 trees per Scotch acre ; — suppose after that period the 

 whole were cut down at the following respective ages; the value of 

 the whole per acre at the different periods, would be as follows : — 



400 trees at 30 years old, at 2 1-2 cubic feet each tree = 1000 cubic 

 feet, or twenty loads at Is. 6d. per foot profit = <£75 per acre. 



