n 



at 5/- pet acre per annum. At 30 years' purchase the value of the 

 soil comes to £7 10s, Od. per acre. The actual returns were as 

 follows :^From thinnings, £4,500 ; from final fellings at the age 

 of 50 years, £14,500. Throyying the thinnings together with the 

 final yield, the total receipts came to £19,000, or £91 per acre at 

 the age of 50 years. Putting the cost of planting at £5 per acre, 

 which, according to Sir Herbert, is more than it did cost, the 

 result is that this plantation has given all round compound interest 

 at 5i per cent. Take two other examples by Mr Elwes. The 

 first example is as follows : — The value of the land is £8 per acre; 

 cost of planting larch, fencing, &c., £7 lOs. Od. per acre ; annual 

 expenses, 7/6 per acre throughout. The returns from thinnings 

 at 25 years, £10 ; thinnings at 40 years, £30 ; thinnings at 60 years, 

 £60; and the final yield at 100 years was £150. Assuming that 

 the capital was taken out of investments which yielded 3 per cent., 

 the result is that this wood would have yielded compound interest 

 at the rate of 4'312 per cent. In the second example the value of 

 the land is £6 per acre ; the cost of planting, £7 10s. Od. an acre ; 

 annual expenses, 7/6 an acre during the first 25 years, and after- 

 wards 2/6, owing to receipts from shooting. The returns are : — 

 Thinnings at 25 years, £10 an acre ; thinnings at 40 years, £20 an 

 acre ; and the final yield at 60 years, £100 an acre. The result is 

 that the plantation gives compound interest at 7j per cent. 



We have next the example given by Mr W. B. Havelock, who 

 is well known as an authority. The return is of a wood 18 acres in 

 extent actually cut down, and. the land value of which he estimates 

 at £7 IDs. Od. an acre, because as soon as the wood was cut, gorse 

 and other shrubs made their appearance. The cost of planting 

 that wood, including fencing, &c., came to £8 an acre. The value 

 of the thinnings is not known, but the old woodman asserts that 

 several hundred pounds' worth have been taken out for sale and 

 estate purposes. The value of the shooting is not given, but it 

 might easily be put at cost of looking after the wood. The age of 

 that wood when cut was between 75 and 80 years, and it gave the 

 following results :^-There were 1,328 larch trees, 262 Scotch pine, 

 74 oak, 116 beech, 35 birch, 12 spruce, and 120 ash. The net 

 receipts, after deducting all expenses of harvesting, selling, &c., 

 were £2,835 3S. lOd., which is equal to £157 10s. Qd. per acre. 

 Taking the mean between 75 and 80 years as the age of the wood, 

 and allowing compound interest, it will be found that this wood has 

 yielded to the proprietor 3"56 per cent., or a little over 3 J per cent. 

 If the value of the thinnings were known, and included, the rate of 

 interest would certainly have been not less than 4 per cent. 



Mr Fmser Story, of the tJniversity College of North Wales, 

 fiangor, in an interesting article to the " Manchester Guardian,'' 

 points out that the actual experience of Western Europe is that 



