HIGHWOODS, COPSES, ETC. 269 
It is essentially of the nature of a permanent, 
a gradual, and a very rapidly accumulating 
investment. It should only be embarked upon 
after fujl consideration of the matter, and 
should only be conducted either with personal 
knowledge or else under competent advice. 
No landowner would ever dream of investing 
435,000 to £42,500 on mortgages or ordi- 
nary investments without his lawyer’s advice or 
some other specialist’s opinion; yet many of 
the large plantations of Britain have been 
formed on rather haphazard methods, and are 
not being managed as well as they might be. 
If the woods and coppices are fully stocked, 
as should be aimed at under good manage- 
ment, then the necessary capital in the grow- 
ing crops is equal to the yield of the mature 
fall of each year multiplied by half the num- 
ber of years in the period of rotation. If the 
bulk of the land is stocked with crops younger 
than half the period of rotation, then the 
capital in woods or coppices is insufficient to 
yield the best return from the land in the 
shape of a regularly-sustained annual yield; 
while, if the majority of the crops is older than 
