296 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. ^ 



information contained in the note-book appears to be reliable, and 

 will probably be found of use by those for whom it is intended. 



" Complete Yield Tables for British Woodlands and the Finance 

 of British Forestry." By P. Trentham Maw. Obi. 8vo., 108 pp. 

 (Crosby Lockw^ood, London, 1912.) 76'. 6d. net. 



To compile yield-tables for British woodlands has been both an 

 arduous and dif&cult task. That the want of such tables has, as the 

 author says, long been felt, we are by no means prepared to say, for 

 our comparatively small areas of woods and forests, rarely grown as 

 they are for purely economical purposes, hardly warrant us, particularly 

 with the very incomplete evidence as to the growth and yield of timber | 

 in this country which we possess, in tabulating the figures. The book I 

 is divided into four chapters — the two principal being devoted to yield- 

 tables of hard-wooded and coniferous trees — is concisely and well 

 arranged, and in a handy form for the office table or desk. 



The principal timber-producing trees are dealt with separately, and 

 in a list of parallel columns will be found such useful information as | 

 age of plantation, number of trees removed, distance apart, height, the j 

 average bulk and value of the trees at certain ages, as well as land- I 

 rentals and annual income from normally stocked forests. I 



In looking over these tabulated figures, we are at once struck by 

 the low cubic contents and prices generally that are given for several j 

 kinds of timber. Take the poplar and ash, for instance; but, then, 

 so much will depend on soil, altitude, and exposure, and local and 

 other demand, as well as distance from rail or waterway. 



Not long ago we sold a plantation of ash, forty-five years planted, 

 the average cubic contents of the trees being much over 16| feet, while i|i 

 the price received was M. a foot higher than recorded in these tables. 

 But this only serves to show what a large number of returns from 

 various localities are required to give a just average of the contents and 

 selling price. We have found, too, that ash timber does not generally 

 increase in value with age, the clean-grown, supple trees of from forty 

 to sixty years' growth being far ahead in point of value of the older 

 and generally rougher timber. 



We have been wondering where the Sitka spruce can be found in j 

 sufficient breadths in this country to enable reliable statistics of growth j 

 and value to be tabulated; and our experience of the Weymouth pine j 

 in Wales is that it is ahead of the Corsican pine in the production of j 

 timber. j 



We are hardly prepared to accept the author's statement that j 

 afforestation must generally be looked upon in the light of a gamble, i 

 Far from such being the case, numerous returns have been recorded 

 from England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland that prove the opposite. 

 There need be no gambling if the planting is done in a proper way 

 and by those who have a practical knowledge of what they are doing. 

 Unfortunately, this has not always been the case of British woodlands, 

 the estate carpenter or gamekeeper having much to say in the question 

 of trees and planting. 



