THE UTILISATION OF LAND UNSUITABLE FOR AGRICULTURE. 21 



assistance in that respect. Thick planting should be the ru]e, 

 especially on cold exposed situations, where 18 inches or 2 feet 

 asunder would not be too close, while 3 feet should not be 

 exceeded. Where the natural herbage is poor, consisting of poor 

 grasses and heather, the trees may be small. The younger they 

 are the cheaper they are ; they are also more easily planted, and 

 they grow better. The only tending required after the trees are 

 established consists in keeping the fences and drains in order and 

 in regulating the trees so as to let every tree have its top fully 

 exposed to the light, and in preventing destructive crowding in any 

 part. But on no account should the ground between the trees be 

 exposed. Indeed the plantation may be left almost undisturbed 

 for fifteen or twenty years, and after that thinning should be 

 sparingly practised till the trees have reached a size at which they 

 can be profitably disposed of as timber. 



IV. — Prospects of Profit from the Planting of Poor Lands. 



It has been shown that nearly all kinds of timber-trees will 

 grow to a large size on very poor soils, and on a great variety of 

 poor soils, and that the value of the crop depends mainly on the 

 species of trees grown, the quality of the timber, the quantity 

 that can be grown to the acre, and reasonable proximity to the 

 market. The most important factor, however, is a good heavy 

 crop, for whether the price be high or low the number of cubic 

 feet will determine the value. The produce in this respect will 

 depend upon the system adopted and the degree of intelligence 

 with which it is carried out from beginning to end. I have no 

 doubt whatever that in the past incalculable losses have been 

 sustained by neglect and mistakes on these points. The 

 difference between the value of a crop of some cheap kind of 

 timber and timber of considerable value may amount easily to 

 from 50 to 70 per cent. The rent and expenses are the same, 

 and a crop of some valuable kind of timber may be produced 

 as easily as a crop of some cheap kind. As regards quantity to 

 the acre, the severe and frequent thinnings to which plantations 

 in this country have been subjected in the past have often con- 

 verted what might have been a profitable crop into a dead loss, 

 and every one who has sold much timber also knows well that 



