NATIONAL AFFORESTATION.

[To ens Eames or Ts. Skecrreori."]

Sea,—The correspondence on this subject seems to have reached a definite issue. All the writers are on common ground when they discuss the growing scarcity of timber, the benefit of afforestation to the rural worker, and the probability that if forestry could be made to pay anywhere in Britain its beat chance would be in Scotland, but they are sharply divided upon the question whether it can be made to pay or not ; if this question could be answered in the affirmative, the only argument against State afforestation would disappear and its admitted benefits would remain.

I have no hesitation in saying that forestry can be made to pay, and that it does pay even now on those estates where it is carried out on proper lines. In my capacity as Secretary of the Landowners' Forestry Society it is my duty to make myself familiar with the forestry capabilities of the estates of over three hundred landed proprietors in every county of Scotland, to inspect and report on their timber Drops, to draw up valuations, and to arrange sales both of growing and manu- factured timber; on the purely commercial side of the question I have special opportunities of estimating the position, and I have been surprised at the large profits that can be made in the industry in spite of the mismanagement which has been the characteristic of Scottish forestry in the past.

Sir John Stirling Maxwell, in your issue of January 17th, quoted the case of Never. I would quote that of the Atholl estates, where forestry has proved so profitable that the wood- land areas are now being replanted on a large scale. Such examples are few and far between, not because forestry might not pay equally well in other districts, but because few pro- prietors can be found who are prepared to defer their profits until they are no longer alive to enjoy them. This objection would not apply to the State.

I have recently bad occasion to value certain plantations of growing larch on the west coast of Inverness-shire. The plantations are five in number, and are from nineteen to thirty-eight yeara of age. The soil and climate are suitable to the growth of larch, and the trees have grown fast and close upon the ground—they have already reached pitwood dimensions. The following was my valuation

Lot 1 ... Lot 2 ... Lot 3 ... Lot 4 ... . Lot 5 ... Aga Number of Height Avenge synod. Trees, to Acre. to 24in. Coble Contests,

FL In.

88 370 50 611

36 380 45 6 3 27 40) — — 26 400 43 5 4

19 700 85 —

roximate App Grose Val. l'er Acre,

C 130 118 80 108 150 The total net profit may be estimated as follows:— Present gross values ... Less cost of planting at .6.5 per as at 4 per cent. Lot 1 17 nes.

£2,210 Lot 2 30 acs £3,540 Lots 10 a..

£800

Lot 4 8 tura

£848 lot 5 14 ace £2,100 compound interest ... 365 600 144 110 147

—

— — —

£1,845 £2,940 £656 £738 .131,953

Leas 50 percent. for felling, peeling, dragging, load- ing, freight and delivery

922 1,470 328 369 976 Net profit ... .0323 £1,470 £328 £389 £977 Net profit per acre ... £47 £49 £33 -648 269

Note.—No allowance has been made for the cost of maintenance. tbuinthp. but other hand no credit has been taken for value of h

Had the foregoing land remained unplunted it would have yielded a grazing rent of, say, one shilling an acre, in which case the summarized value per acre for the respective ages of the plantations would have been as follows :- Lot 1...38 m

4 a d

, . .a I p 5 0 Lot 2...86 „ „ „ „ „ „ 317 0 Lot 3...27 „ „ „ „ „, 2 7 0

Lot 4...28 „ . 2 4 0

Lot 5...19 „ „ „ „ „ 1 7 6 Even after making allowance for errors in the estimates, it will be seen that in the foregoing case planting showed a large profit. My figures are obtained from actual cargoes of larch pitwood of similar dimensions which my Society has marketed for its members during the past two years.

In the case of timber crops requiring a long rotation the profit is relatively smaller, and can only be secured by economic management and continuity of policy, yet the profit is there, as can be proved by the isolated cases where these essentials exist, If, then, it be possible for private individuals, handicapped as they are by lack of capital, insecurity of life, and unsyste- matie management, to grow timber at a profit now, how much larger will the profit be when the present dwindling supplies become still further diminished; an illustration was afforded during the recent period of high freights, when the coat of foreign timber became so greatly inflated as to cause a boom in the price of home-grown timber in spite of the scarcity of labour and the market being flooded by blown wood.

The Duke of Northumberland's proposal to import tropical timber to take the place of Norway red wood and white wood is impracticable. We know that Burmese teak is replacing English oak for railway waggon building, but at what an enormous price. Congo mahogany is about the same price as yellow pine, owing to the fact that the latter has quadrupled in value during recent yeare ; yet Congo mahogany has not yet replaced yellow pine in any of its many uses. Neither mahogany nor teak could be economically used as railway sleepers; it would probably be cheaper to employ iron. Then, again, what tropical timber could possibly replace those trews which are grown in Britain only, e.g., larch, which is now the only timber which can be used for certain purposes in mines ? Even oak is not strong enough to stand the strains which lards will bear. So far as I am aware, we import no larch, and the demand for home-grown larch is constantly increasing. The so-called Siberian larch which is beginning to come into this country has none of the qualities of the home-grown article; for example, it will not last for three years as a fence-post —

Secretary, Laudownere Cooperatin Forestry Society, Ltd.

33 Queen Street, Edinburgh.