FARM-VALUES AND FOREST-VALUES, 113 
In this 60 to 100 years’ period the growth in the different sections 
of forest will have varied, That variation, together with early and 
postponed cuttings, will enable the foresters to scheme out the age- 
classes. Once the age-classes are established it will mean regular yields 
from one part or another of the forest every year, exactly as there are 
yearly crops from a farm. It should perhaps be explained that the 
figures in the “‘ balance-sheet ’’ are general averages for each forest or 
‘‘ working-circle’’ of a forest. They will not be true for any one 
section or compartment. They view the forest as a whole. At one time 
there may be revenue in one section and expenditure in another. Thus 
in the cultivated forest the balance is struck yearly: there is no interest 
charge as in the case of forest plantations. To think of destroying the 
forest and replanting it is reckless extravagance, especially in New Zea- 
land, where both labour and the current rates of interest on money are 
higher than in Europe. 
MILLING. 
The ‘* balance-sheet *’ shows that milling will go forward much as at 
present, the intervals being—for the main crop. about 100 years; 
for the thinnings, from 20 to 40 years. The forest being cut up 
with a complete network of roads, the milling-conditions will be much 
easier than at present. Earlier thinnings before the road network is 
complete can be arranged to be put through in groups of sections abutting 
on existing roads or tramways. Generally speaking, the foresters will 
not make thinnings that do not pay, and the want of them will be less 
felt in this class of forest than in some others, their place being often 
taken by nettovements and ring-barking (p. 116). In the New Zealand 
‘‘bush ’’ the analogy is with the coppice-under-standard system of 
regular forestry. The main thing during the ‘‘ transition ’’ period is 
to look after the standards, averaging 200 to 300 to the acre. 
FARM-VALUES AND FOREST-VALUES COMPARED. 
For the State it is important to see clearly how these returns from 
State forests compare with grassing and dairying or other pastoral 
values. In what goes before I have taken two concrete cases as illus- 
trations: the Puhipuhi land with the forest destroyed and taken for 
grassing and dairying (p. 57), and the Waipoua Forest, with the 
land on three sides, taken for grassing and dairying (‘‘ Waipoua 
Kauri Forest,’’ pp. 46-48). To fully realize what these forestry figures 
mean one may lay them alongside average pastoral-farm yalues, They 
compare favourably with even the present inflated land-values, such as 
land-sales of farm land at Taranaki that within the last two years have 
touched £100 per acre! | 
Taking a good cow as yielding £20 per year gross and an average 
cow as about £12, I have good authority for the following as a rough 
average scale of dairy values :— 
PASTORAL VALUBS OF LAND. 
First-class grazing (Taranaki, for instance) carrying one cow per ¢ 
acre... = af a id ise i= SFS0 
.Good land—one cow to 2 acres =! sng oe sa 0 
Fair land—one cow to 3 acres = aA e ee 
Poor land—one cow to 5 acres, or two sheep to the acre (hills around 
Wellington, for instance) ee ihe 
Very poor land—one cow to 10 acres, or one sheep per acre a} 
