INTRODUCTION xiii 



mission. No figures have been published show- 

 ing on what basis they proceeded in fixing 

 prices, but it is fairly certain that the compulsory 

 prices for oak gave the grower not more than 

 1 or 1J per cent, of the cost of production, and 

 that the price of ash and pit-props never exceeded 

 4 per cent. 



Forestry, like all other arts for growing natural 

 products, has three main divisions : the selection 

 and preparation of the soil, the cultivation and 

 harvest of the crop, and the sale of the crop, 

 which is the last in date, but is the aim which 

 the grower has in view from the beginning. A 

 farmer can generally anticipate, within reason- 

 able limits, the price which his crop will bring, 

 and can regulate his cultivation accordingly. If 

 he is mistaken he loses the labour and expense 

 of only one year. A tree-grower can form no 

 notion of the price of his crop fifty or a hundred 

 years later than the planting. His only plan is 

 to make the assumption that during the growth 

 of the wood the price of timber will not fall. If 

 his market, owing to altered circumstances, fails, 

 and his calculation of the price proves to be 

 mistaken, he loses the labour and expense of 

 many years. As for example, when a change 

 in trade has depreciated the value of the crop 



