COMPLETE YIELD TABLES FOR BRITISH WOODLANDS.
Complete Yield Tables for British Woodlands. By P. Trentham Maw. (Crosby Lockwood and Son. 75. 6d. net.)—We cannot do much more than recommend this volume to the attention of the owners of woodlands. One or two of the results stated in the tables may be given. Ash grown in land of Quality 1 (the best) yields at the end of seventy years 4262, thinnings having mean- while produced 465. In Quality 4 (the worst) the figures stand at 436 10e. and 44 10s. Of course this means a considerable loss. Spanish chestnut on Quality 1, for the same time, brings in 4201 and 4104 10s., and for Quality 4 .875 10s. and 414. Douglas fir for ninety years shows 4409 10s. and 4346. On the whole Mr. Maw concludes that afforestation is likely to yield good financial results (always supposing that prices keep up and that there are no insect plagues) with certain kinds of tree and on good ground. As to the altitude limit, where bracken and gorse grow there is a good prospect of success, but not so where only whortleberry and heather are found. The general conclusion as to the Commis- sioners' scheme is worth quoting : "As the ultimate accumulated capital sum which their scheme involved would amount to well over four hundred million pounds by the time that the forests were in proper working rotation, and this, too, on the assumption that huge sums of money could be borrowed at only 8 per cent. interest, it is evident that if their scheme were carried through, and if the present prices which prevail for timber remain unaltered, future generations would inherit a bankrupt under- taking the liabilities relating to which would be sufficient to paralyse the arm of even the richest nation upon the earth."
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