METHOD OF VALUING GROWING TIMBER. 25 



from twelve to eighteen inches the annual increase in 

 height. Some fall a little short, and some exceed these 

 measures. 



I shall now briefly notice a few of the advantages to be Use of the first 

 derived from the first Table. ' ''^ ^' 



1st. The firs; table shows every fourth year, from twelve trees should 

 years old to a hundred, the rates percent per annum at "^^^^^^^^^ 

 -which all trees increase, whether they grow fast or slow, 

 provided their rate of growth does not vary. This table 

 may be the means of saving young thi-iving woods froui 

 being cut down, by showing how great a loss is sustained 

 by felling timber prematurely*. 



2d. And it may be the means of bringing old trees to or stand too 

 market, by showing the small ness of the interest they pay "S- 

 for the money they are worth, after they are 80 or 100 

 years old. 



But this table shows the interest which they pay, only, Trees decrease 



while the trees continue growing at their usual rate. In ^ ore it is ap- 



. . . . parent. 



case they fall short only a little of their usual increase in 



girth, this considerably diminishes the rate per cent per 



annum of their increase. And trees do decrease in their 



rate of growth, before they appear to do sof . A pale and Signs of this. 



mossy bark are certain indications of it. 



* " A wood, near West Ward, in Cumberland, of more than 200 

 acres, was felling in 1794, it was little more than 30 j'ears old. The 

 whole was cixt away without leaving any to stand." See Miller's 

 Gardener's Dictionary, last edition, under the Head of Woods, 



At 30 years old timber pays 10 per cent for standing, and probably 

 this v/ood might have paid 7 per cent per annum on an avei-Bge for 

 the next 30 years. 



t In Mr. Pringle's Agricultural Report for Westmoreland is a pa- 

 per of the Bishop of Llandaff's, stating, " That a very fine oak, 

 of 82 years growth, measured in circumference at 6 feet from the 

 ground, on the 27th of October I702, 107 inches, and on the same 

 day of the same month in 1793 it measured loS inches." He then 

 states the interest it paid to be only about 2 per cent, and says this 

 tree was a singularly thriving one. It is evident, that, with all this 

 appearance of thriving, it was on the decline. For if we divide 108, 

 its inches in circumference, by 82, its age, we find its average annual 

 increase had been 1 inch and a third. Its falling off to 1 inch reduced 

 the rate per cent of increase one fourth. 



3d. 



