196 WOODS. is rateable. Underwood THE last kind of property mentioned in the statute of 43 Eliz. as liable to the poor's rate, is saleable underwoods; by which is understood small coppice woods and young shoots from the stools of larger trees, which are occasionally thinned or taken down under the age of twenty years. The larger trees, and those of twenty years' growth and upwards, are purposely excepted out of the statute, with a view, as is generally thought, to encourage the planting of trees for shipbuilding, and prevent our being dependant, in time of war, on foreign timber. Timber trees are not rate able. The man ner of The legal rate due for saleable undervaluing un- woods amounts to very little compared with that on land in cultivation. derwood. Where the growth of trees of a large size is encouraged, the underwood, being shaded and overtopped, is seldom worth more at twenty one years' growth than six or seven pounds. an acre. The rate being laid in anticipation of the profits of the growing underwood, the price that it may sell for at the end of the term, deducting the expences of taking down, &c. and the interest of the money received at so distant a period, must be apportioned equally in all the years of its growth. The rate for the above amounts would then be only about 4s. per acre. are not un derwood. Fir-trees yield no underwood; when the Fir-trees trees are cut off, the stumps do not send up any young shoots: therefore a regular plantation of firs, intended to stand twenty years or upwards, is not rateable. But if there be a mixture of oak, ash, elm, hazel, or other trees forming underwood, or from which, when cut off, young shoots will grow, such underwood, if intended for sale, is rateable according to its progressive annual value. under The court of King's Bench have deter- Saleable mined, that by "saleable underwoods" is woods. meant, "underwoods intended or destined for sale, in contra-distinction to such as are Estimate of underwood. to supply the landlord with estovers for fuel, and the other purposes of the estate," and that they are not to be rated in every twenty-first year, or in the year when they are taken down only, but that they are at all times rateable according to their annual increase in value. But, in practice, to value their improved state in each year, would be very troublesome as well as difficult; it is therefore more common to rate underwoods according to their average annual value for the whole term, which is computed from their supposed profit when they are expected to be saleable. Suppose underwood be worth 87. per acre at the end of twenty-one years; by the rule of compound interest, 37. will make about 81. in twenty-one years: therefore, at the end of the first year, the underwood is worth 31. 3s. ; at the end of the second year, about 31. 6s. 2d., and so on, increasing in arithmetical progression more rapidly as the sum is augmented. 37. in ten years, at compound interest, amounts to about 47. 16s., and in eleven years, to 57. 2s.; therefore the average sum to reckon interest upon annually, for the rate on the whole term, is about 51., which is 5s. per acre per annum. The rate upon underwood must be laid according to the quality of the soil and the supposed value of the produce, which, of course, will vary with local circumstances. underwood must yield a succession In rating woods, it is necessary to bear in Rateable mind, that the statute mentions only "saleable underwoods;" by which is included of profit. such kind of brushwood, cordwood, stakes, bindings, hop-poles, or firewood, as grow spontaneously, or from the stool after the bole of a tree is severed, and which yield a succession of profit. Where larch and trees of the fir tribe are planted amongst other trees instead of underwood, and which are not intended to be cut down till the end of thirty years, it has been decided that such a wood is not rateable. The Court were of opinion that larches and firs are not underwood; and that if they might be termed underwood, yet they are not saleable underwood, in the meaning of the statute, which is construed to include no property as rateable to the poor except such as yields a succession of profits. Result of a The liability of woods to be taxed to the trial on derwood. rating un- relief of the poor, is well described in the result of a trial in the King's Bench, before Lord Ellenborough, Chief Justice. His Lordship explained and decided the case as follows: — " This was an appeal against a poor's rate for the parish of Mirfield, in which the appellant, Henry Beaumont, Esq., was rated for some underwoods. The underwoods were such as are usually cut down once in twenty-one years; and in the year they are cut they produce profit, but in other years they are stated as producing none. At the time of the rate they were ten years' standing. The sessions thought they were not rateable, and therefore quashed the rate; but submitted the question to this Court, Whether they were liable to be rated every year, according to the average annual value thereof; or whether they should be rated then only when they are cut down and produce actual profit? Among the several descriptions of |