128 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 
stock of wood will continue to increase in remu- 
nerativeness for a longer term of years on good 
soil and in a favourable situation than on in- 
ferior soil and in an unfavourable situation. Or 
to put it in another way, the better the soil and 
the more favourable the situation, the longer will 
it pay, as an investment, to allow the timber to go 
on growing. Hence the business of Forestry is 
to ascertain and determine the time at which the 
maximum of profit is obtainable on the capital re- 
presented by soil and timber; because the moment 
the annual increase in growth begins to show any 
fall in monetary value, as expressed per cent. on 
the capital, that is then the proper time to harvest 
the mature crop and raise up a new generation of 
trees to be likewise dealt with economically as an 
investment intended to produce the best income 
obtainable from the land. 
In the case of copses and coppice woods, how- 
ever, the more favourable the soil and the situa- 
tion generally, the shorter may be the rotation 
without risking deterioration of the soil as a 
producer of wood and bark. The conservation 
of the productiveness of the soil must always 
form one of the very first considerations in fixing 
