20 THE SAD PLIGHT OF BRITISH FORESTRY 



Taking prices at the improbably low figure of 6d. a foot, 

 1000 acres, yielding an annual average of seventy-five 

 cubic feet per acre, will give a gross return of £1875, 5s., 

 or 37s. 6d. an acre from land which, as sheep pasture, 

 yielded a rent of 2s. an acre, or £100 for 1000 acres. The 

 average balance-sheet would appear as follows, subject to 

 a slight additional charge for insurance. 



Expenditure. Eeceipts. 



Interest at 4 per cent. Sale of 75 cubic feet 



on capital £13,332 £532 18 per acre at 6d. on 

 ATerage annual ex- 1000 acres . . £1875 5 



penses . . . 500 



Net profit . . 842 7 



£1875 5 



£1875 5 



If no more than £10,000 were voted annually for the 

 next fifty years the State would have made a progressive 

 investment of half a million — about the cost of four days' 

 war against the Boers — and earned a gross revenue of 

 £93,750, supposing the price of timber fifty years hence 

 at no more than 6d. a foot. The experiment would seem 

 to be worth trying. 



It will occur at once to any one acquainted with the 

 vicissitudes of woodland that no account has been taken 

 of the effect of forest fires and gales. One reply to that 

 objection is that agricultural owners provide against fire, 

 and shipowners against loss from gales, by insurance, and 

 that there is margin enough in the estimated income 

 either to pay an adequate premium to an insurance 

 company, or, as many large shipping companies do, 

 maintain an independent casualty fund by annual pay- 

 ments. But there is a further consideration. As regards 

 fire, undoubtedly coniferous woods must always be liable 



