GROWING PLANTATIONS. 211 



In the act of valuing trees in the forest, I do not, 

 of course, take time to sum up the value of each 

 tree, but leave the money- columns blank until I 

 have the work finished, or at least until the even- 

 ings when I get home, and then I have leisure to do 

 so correctly. Having provided myself with a book 

 of the description mentioned above, all ready and 

 ruled, with the numbers filled in, and the uses of 

 the columns written along the top of each page, 

 I next engage three, or perhaps, if the trees are 

 hard in the bark and difficult to mark, four men 

 of active habit, each provided with an h'on adapted 

 for the marking of figures upon the bark of trees : 

 one of the men I cause to begin by marking No. 1 

 upon the first tree to be valued, a second man marks 

 No. 2, a third No. 3, and the fourth No. 4 ; and in 

 tliis manner the four men follow one another, each of 

 them marking his own number next in succession 

 upon another new tree : that is, if the first man mark 

 No. 1, his next in succession will be No. 5, if the 

 second mark No. 2 his next in succession will be No. 

 6, and so on with the rest. When the men are pro- 

 perly arranged at their work of marking the trees, 

 I next commence myself with the tree having 

 the mark No. 1 upon it, and write opposite the 

 same number in my book the species of the tree, 

 next the number of cubic feet that I think it con- 

 tains, and lastly, the price per cubic foot of each 

 tree, as I think it would really bring in the market 



