268 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 
of £35,000, and would (along with the capital 
value of the land) yield an annual return 
of £1750, or £2, 38. gd. per acre; while 
with the one hundred years’ rotation the 
entire woods would be worth £42,500, and 
would bring in a continuous income of 
4£2266%, or £2, 16s. 8d. per acre, as the 
interest on the capital in timber and the 
rental from the land. ‘But,’ I think I hear 
some landowner suggest, ‘it seems absurd to 
have so large a capital in timber on so small 
an area. One could do much better with it if 
he cleared the timber altogether, invested the 
proceeds in other commercial projects, and got 
whatever else he could from the land.’ Not 
so, however. If all the capital were in the 
form of marketable timber, the order could, 
taking advantage of what might seem a 
favourable turn of the market, be given to 
denude the broad acres and convert the 
timber into money; but, as most of the crops 
must be immature, realisation could only take 
place at a heavy loss. Timber-growing is not 
like stock-jobbing or investments in shares, which 
can be changed from time to time as desired. 
