1910.] Financial Aspect of Growth of Scots Pine. 193 



that in the recent report on afforestation issued by the Coast 

 Erosion Commissioners, their estimate of the cost of planting 

 up some millions of acres of waste land was £6 10s. per acre ; 

 and their estimated cost of average annual outgoings was 4s. 

 per acre. 



So, again, if a lower rate of interest than 3J per cent, be 

 taken, the losses will not be so great. But I have taken 

 per cent, interest because it is approximately the rate of 

 interest at present yielded by most "trustee stock," and it is 

 approximately the lowest rate of interest at which the more 

 wealthy of our cities and corporations can borrow money. 



Now I must ask my readers to consider very carefully 

 whether the yield of timber per acre, as instanced in the 

 above table, is reasonable — for it is a German yield table — and 

 whether the prices per foot at which I have valued the timber 

 are correct for their respective localities. As to the former 

 point, my own opinion is that, approximately, similar yields of 

 timber may be looked for on fair average mountain land at 

 an elevation of from 650 to 950 ft. above sea-level, provided 

 always that there is higher land in the vicinity which will 

 afford a certain amount of shelter and protection ; provided 

 also that in such a yield table no special allowance has been 

 made for special damage wrought by insects, fungi, fire, or 

 storm. My own yield table for Scots Pine grown upon 

 second quality soil in this country shows far too high a yield 

 for average land at an altitude of 650 to 950 ft. above sea- 

 level. 



It is interesting to compare the yield at the sixty-seventh 

 year, viz., 2,830 cubic ft. (including thinnings), worth 

 ^46 105., with the returns from a large typical area in 

 Inverness-shire, which, along with others, I quoted in the 

 January number (1910) of the Quarterly Journal of Forestry, 

 Vol. IV., pp. 39, 40 (5). This w-as a typical, well-grown, 

 mature Scots Pine area, sixty to seventy years old, situated 

 at 600 to 1,000 ft. above sea-level; it contained 2,250 cubic 

 ft. per acre; there was a railway station within a short dis- 

 tance; one block had been sold for ^42, and another block 

 f° r ^45 10s. per acre.* 



* There were only 250 trees per acre, averaging 9 cubic feet each, which realised 

 4$. per foot. If there had been more trees per acre, as in the German table, the 



P 



