324 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 
noting in this connection is that, on land again 
being brought under wood long after its original 
clearance, the capital in timber can often be built 
up and accumulated more completely and at the 
least expenditure in money, though not in time, 
by means of sowing in place of planting; while 
sowings, which come up thickly, will always 
yield earlier and considerably larger thinnings 
than plantations, unless these should happen to 
have been made very closely, and at a cost almost 
prohibitive in Britain. The 4840 plants required 
per acre for planting at 3 feet by 3 feet will, even 
if smaller plants be used, cost more when set in 
the ground than the 2722 required for setting 
out at 4 feet by 4 feet. But, in well-managed 
woods of twenty years of age, after the first 
thinnings have been made, the number of poles 
really required to form close cover with proper 
utilisation of the soil usually exceeds considerably 
the whole initial number of plants with which 
plantations are generally formed in Britain. The 
influence of this is felt not only as regards the 
actual capital in timber, but also as to the income 
subsequently yielded by the woods. 
The consideration of these various matters will 
