i9io.] 



Coombe Plantation, Keswick. 



355 



returns in any one year, and these sums have been worked 

 out at 3 per cent, compound interest to their amounts in 

 1909, and the results placed in parallel columns. 



Returns. — The first yields from the plantation were ob- 

 tained in 1856, 1857, and 1858, when a few young plants 

 were removed and sold. Thinnings were begun in the year 

 1859, when the plantation was eleven years old. Until 1866 

 details of the yields are not available, but include, presum- 

 ably, small larch thinnings and bark. From 1866 onwards 

 full details have been kept, and these have been summarised 

 on pp. 361-5. The general method of selling was to bark 

 the trees and sell the bark and timber separately, the timber 

 ("peeled larch") being sold at so much per ton of bark ob- 

 tained from it. 



These details, together with the chief expenses, have been 

 summarised into five-yearly periods from the formation of 

 the plantation onwards, in Table V. The volume of larch in 

 cubic feet has been obtained from the weight of bark sold by 

 assuming that one ton of bark is associated with 265 cubic feet 

 of larch timber. This figure was found by experiments 

 carried on in the plantation some years ago, but, of course, 

 cannot be used with any great accuracy, since it would 

 naturally vary with the age and size of the trees under con- 

 sideration. 



The net amount calculated to 1909 of all sales of bark during 

 the sixty-one years is ^2,019 8s. This amount should be 

 noted, as the sale of bark is no longer profitable. 



From 1 868-1872, £4 to £4. 10s. was obtained for larch 

 bark, and in 1876 the maximum of £$ 5s. per ton. Oak bark 

 at the same time brought £7 js. per ton. Since that time 

 there has been a gradual fall in prices, so that larch bark 

 brought £$ to £3 10s. per ton in 1878-1882; £3 10s., 1883 

 to 1892; £3 1 os . to £3 5s., 1 893-1 897; £3 55. to £2 15s., 

 1 898- 1 902 ; £2 15s. to £2 5s., 1 903- 1 907 ; while the present 

 value is £2 5s. per ton. The estimated cost of felling and 

 peeling is about £2 10s. per ton., so that the profit has not 

 been nearly as great as would be expected from the details 

 of the sales. The net return from this source has therefore 

 shown a gradual decline for the last thirty years or so, until 

 in 1903 there was a total loss of £$, and in 1906 of £5 10s. 

 for the year. Since the latter date the timber merchant has 

 done the felling and barking. 



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