18 THE SAD PLIGHT OF BRITISH FOKESTEY 



will take one-third or one-half less on sloping ground), 

 and will cost about £6 an acre=£6000.i jjere we have 

 an immediate initial outlay of £9000, supposing the whole 

 area to be planted at once ; but it might be found expedient 

 to spread the planting over five or even ten years, so as to 

 secure a successional period of maturity, if the same kinds 

 of trees are used on the whole of the ground. The balance 

 of the £10,000 voted, £1000 invested at 3 per cent., 

 would pay the annual tool bill, in addition to which an 

 annual charge must be reckoned upon : 



Head forester £120 



Four woodmen at £60 .... 240 ^ 

 Repairs and buildings . . . 100 



£460 

 or say £500 a year. Shall we be able to meet this charge, 

 receive interest on the capital sunk, and find our capital 

 in hand at the end of the century ? We ought to do so, 

 if the statistics of commercially managed woods on the 

 Continent are trustworthy, for we intend to manage this 

 forest on stringently economic principles, not planting 

 oak here to please somebody's fancy, nor fir there because 

 it will look romantic. We shall not even be guided in 

 choice of trees by the highest prices current at the moment 

 for different species, but we shall suit our crop to soil and 

 situation, so as to grow the maximum weight of timber 

 whereof every acre is capable. 



For the first ten years no return can be expected from 



method of dibbling seed. A sown crop gives a far more liberal return in 

 thinnings than a planted one. 



^ No provision is made in this for fencing, which would not be required 

 where a whole farm is to be planted. 



^ A larger number of woodmen will be required on 1000 acres after ten 

 years, but by that time the forest will have begun to return some revenue. 



