INTEODUCTION. 135 



materially influences the value of wood — that is, the 

 cost or value of the ground it occupies during its 

 period of growth. If the ground, for example, at 10s. 

 per acre can be made to grow as much timber of 

 equal quality as another acre can at 15 s., it must 

 appear evident that the former is the most profitable, 

 and such only as should be planted. As certain de- 

 scriptions of ground, however, grow certain species of 

 trees better than others, an important consideration 

 here arises as to what species of trees to plant upon 

 the different kinds of soil. The importance of this 

 matter is paramount, because, in the first place, when 

 once the trees are planted they in a sense grow of 

 themselves ; hence it becomes every planter's duty to 

 see well to it that only suitable trees, aiid no others, 

 are planted. 



The length of time which a single tree" or crop of 

 trees takes to attain maturity, or its highest possible 

 value, is an important matter ; because if one forester 

 can grow a crop of trees as valuable in fifty years as 

 another can in sixty, then ten years would be there- 

 by gained, which would represent one-sixth of the 

 producing cost, &c. When these and other relative 

 matters are kept in view, the operations of true 

 practical forestry become better understood, and the 

 modes of carrying them out greatly simplified. 



In addition to profit, however, we have also shelter, 

 which consists principally of belts, strips, groups, and 

 single trees, the object of which is to produce warmth 

 and shelter to animals in the fields, and dry and 

 ameliorate the climate. This branch of forestry is, 

 however, more an auxiliary to farming, and a means 

 of making arable and pasture lands pay, than that of 

 producing profitable returns from planting. 



