heavy manner most beneficial to the Oak removes about 300 to 450 cubic feet per acre during each decade. The following average yield may be reckoned :

Under favourable circumstances, 375 to 450 cubic

acre and per decade.

These higher calculations have more especial reference to the tree-forest stage of development.

When a partial clearance (with under-planting) is conducted about the 80th or 100th year, then further intermediate returns from the main crop are dispensed with or discounted; but the partial clearance itself utilises a large proportion of the crop, and accelerates the maturity of the remaining portion.

III. THINNINGS FROM PURE SPRUCE WOODS,

in cubic feet per acre and per decade.

From the 30th to the 80th year, thinnings of 330 to 400 cubic feet per acre and per decade are usual in crops of the average and better classes. Where there is danger from snow or ice, the thinnings should be reduced in quantity.

IV. THINNINGS FROM PURE SCOTS PINE WOODS,

in cubic feet per acre and per decade.

In very full or dense crops, on soil that is not too poor in quality, from 450 to 600 cubic ft. of brushwood and small material may be removed per acre before the 20th year. When thinning only commences about the 25th to 30th year, then the quantity of material removed is, on average and good lands, usually as follows:

By delaying thinning operations in Scots Pine crops a loss of utilisable material is incurred, especially in young woods.

Formation and Tending of Oak Woods.'-More care and attention is perhaps given to the cultivation of the Oak in Great Britain than to any other of our forest-tress; for it is of value not only on account of its timber in high-forest, but also of its bark in coppicewoods.

Three different systems of raising young Oaks are practised in Britain, viz.:

1. Sowing or dibbling of acorns into the soil wherever it is intended to form the crop.

2. Transplanting seedlings from the nurseries in the usual way, and then, when their roots are once firmly established, cutting back each stem close to the ground, and allowing the stock to throw up a number of young shoots. From among these a choice is made of one to remain, whilst all the others are destroyed.

3. The system of putting out schooled transplants in pits, as is usually done, and allowing them to develop naturally.

This entirely overlooks the most natural method of regeneration of Oak-woods, by reproduction from seed shed by parent standards-a method very extensively carried out on the Continent, and with excellent results. That this was also, during the sixteenth century, employed in Britain is evident from the following extract from Lascelles' pamphlet on Arboriculture of the New Forest, 1893, pp. 3 and 4:

"As has been stated before, the forest laws did something for the preservation of the crop of timber actually on the ground, but did nothing towards reproducing it when by natural decay it perished. That encoppicements, and even plantations, were made, seems probable, because the preamble to the first statute passed upon the subject-that of 22 Edward IV., in A.D. 1483-refers to the restrictions placed upon planting by the forest laws, which regarded the preservation of game as the foremost consideration. But by subsequent statutes-those of the 35 Henry VIII. and 13 Elizabeth-the practices of encoppicement were made imperative in the royal forests, and many orders and proclamations were made in accordance with them.

"The records of the Court of Exchequer abound with memoranda of

1 See the remarks previously made on pp. 95-97 of Vol. I. (Chap. II.); also British Forest Trees, 1893, pp. 193 et seq.

the cost of erecting fences for the exclusion of the cattle and deer from the various copses or woods in different parts of the forest, commencing with the reign of Henry VIII. In the seventh year of Elizabeth we have a return of 'all Her Majesty's woods in parks, forests, and chases,' in which is given a most complete list of the ancient woods of the New Forest, some of which can be traced at the present day, though in most cases the sites, being land well suited to the growth of timber, have been replanted with younger wood at some intermediate period. But there is hardly an acre of land which would grow timber naturally that is not referred to in this return.

"The practice of cultivation seems to have been that of 'natural regeneration,' such as is advocated by the most distinguished foresters of the modern school. In old days it went by the name of encoppicing, and the process seems to have been simply to enclose the area by a fence against cattle and deer, and to rely on the natural reproduction of the seed from the existing crop of trees to replenish the wood. After the coppice was fairly established, it seems to have been the practice to farm it out on lease for a term of years, but under certain restrictions as to the preservation of timber. Thus in A.D. 1571 we find a presentment of the regarders of the forest to the effect that 'a coppice called Ridley Coppice hath been spoiled by cattle by one John Marlowe.' To this careful attention, it may be, we owe it that we are now able to enjoy the beauties of Ridley Wood-without exception the most beautiful of all the woods of the New Forest as it now exists. Such presentments, however, abound in the records of this reign, and it is clear that great pains were taken to keep the numerous young coppices free from all manner of cattle. These coppices are the old woods which are the glory of the Forest at the present day."

As the system of sowing or dibbling in the acorns has already been considered in Chapter IX. (p. 122), no further reference need here be made to it.

Although the second system, that of transplanting the young trees from the nursery into the open, and then, when their roots are fairly established, cutting them back, and finally choosing the strongest and healthiest shoots for permanent development,-is much practised in high-lying districts, where young hardwoods are apt to suffer when newly-lifted from a sheltered nursery, yet it can certainly not be recommended for the formation of high-forest crops. Both from the physiological and the practical points of view, it would be infinitely preferable to raise the plants in the vicinity of the land to be planted up, so as to have, them acclimatised naturally. Where, however, hardy plants are not obtainable, then circumstances must be submitted to, and this system of cutting over is only assisting nature; for as soon as the plants are cut over, they each send up from three to six vigorous young shoots, which can be removed, with the exception of that left to form the permanent stem. By adopting this method. strong vigorous young shoots of 2 ft. high may sometimes be obtained during the second year after planting; whereas, if the plants be not cut back, three or four years may elapse before shoots are formed of the same strength.

But any such deliberate crippling of plants, except for purposes of coppice-formation, is a direct interference with the vitality of the tree, which may exhibit its influence in the later stages of development. Sylvicultural experience in Germany has distinctly shown that high-forest crops raised from stool-shoots cannot attain the same longevity as crops raised directly from seed; the former begin to flag earlier in annual increment.

Some foresters even cut down the plants, immediately on receiving them, to within 3 in. of the roots, and plant them in this state in the pits which have been prepared for them in the open; and they assert that they thus gain young shoots a year sooner than if they had allowed the plants to remain for one year in the ground previous to being cut over in the usual way. But, upon examining the state of the young plants which are thus cut back previous to planting, the shoots produced will be found to be weak during the first season; as a matter of fact, no vigorous growth is made till the second year. Hence something is lost instead of gained; for, until the roots of the young plants are fairly established, very little young wood can be produced. The plants require a full year in order to establish their roots; if they are forced to make wood during that year, the wood seldom ripens well, but is weak and apt to be nipped by the first frost of winter. But when the young plants are permitted to establish themselves during the year after being planted, and are only then cut back, they always make more vigorous and stronger shoots in that one season than plants of the same class cut at the time of planting and having two years' growth of shoots.

Both modifications of the system are, however, objectionable. They can only be justified, so far as concerns the raising of high-forest, when acclimatised plants can absolutely not be obtained. And even then the use of sturdy, well-developed small transplants would, in the long-run, be preferable to this wanton mutilation of the seedling Oaks.

The third system, that of planting the young trees in pits, and allowing them to develop naturally, is the usual method practised in all moderately sheltered districts for Oaks, and for all other sorts of young trees not above 4 ft. high, which have been twice transplanted in the nursery, so as to give them well-fibred roots. Sometimes on soil not of first-rate quality, and in exposed situations, the plants may find great difficulty in establishing themselves, in which case the normal balance between imbibition and transpiration is so much disturbed that the stem may die off; but if the soil be good and the root system remain active, then young shoots may be sent up to supply the place of the dead stems, and as these grow up they become acclimatised, and continue to develop healthily.

VOL. II.

K

As has previously been stated (see Vol. I. p. 467), the younger the seedlings or transplants are, the less is the disturbance caused. Hence, unless special dangers exist from weeds, &c., the use of young plants is preferable, not only for economical reasons, but also with a view to the most successful establishment of the young crop.

Different opinions prevail in Britain as to the distance at which young Oaks should be planted when it is intended to raise up an Oak wood, and not merely an ornamental plantation. The broad general question-At what distance ought Oak to be planted with the view of realising the greatest possible profit from the land in the shortest possible time after planting? cannot be answered in any definite manner. For in one neighbourhood young Oak poles may be of considerable value, whilst in another they may be comparatively worthless; and in any given locality young Larch thinnings may be in demand, while Oak may fail to find a ready or remunerative market.

From the purely financial and sylvicultural points of view, it may be ⚫ generally stated (Nisbet, op. cit., p. 210) that

"Very good results can frequently be obtained by the use of two to three year-old transplants in rows of 4 to 5 ft. by 3 ft. When older transplants are desirable, the distances at which they are put out vary from about 4 ft. by 4 ft. to 10 ft. by 10 ft., or the equivalent growing-spaces if in rows, as the initial cost rapidly increases with the size of the transplants."

Wherever Oak plantations are raised in any exposed parts of the country where this species does not grow rapidly, it is necessary to scatter Larch or Pine among the Oaks as nurses.

In such cases it should always be borne in mind that the main crop is Oak; hence, whenever the time comes for the nurses to be removed, they should be cut out immediately. To let the Larch or Pine stand for two or three years after they are no longer required, in the hope of getting better returns from the thinnings, is to deliberately prejudice the ultimate development and value of the main crop of Oak.

In the above the Pine is spoken of as a nurse; but it must only be regarded as a nurse, and not as a timber-tree,-for soils that are good enough to plant with a crop of Oak are usually much too rich for the production of sound resinous durable Pine. When the soil is too rich, the wood of the Pine is apt to be spongy and not well able to resist either fungoid infection or the attacks of insects.

But in more sheltered districts, where there is little doubt of the Oaks thriving, an admixture of Beech is preferable in order to improve the soil.

This matter, however, branches off to the advantages to be derived from mixed woods over pure crops, -a subject that has already received attention elsewhere (see Vol. I. p. 518; also the editor's British Forest Trees, 1893, pp. 170 and 201; and Studies in Forestry, 1894, chapter vi.).