SUITED FUU 1'LANTING. 293 



plants by overshadowing them, and the oaks can then be treated 

 as mentioned in 2 /3. 



2. By rearing a pure oak forest, and tlien sowing or planting 

 young beeches underneath; and this either (a) when the oaks 

 are from 25 to 40 years old — that is, as soon as herbage begins 

 to cover the surface of the soil. In this case planting is to be 

 recommended in preference to sowing. Before the commence- 

 ment of the planting operations the forest shoukl be well thinned; 

 or (^) when the oaks have nearly ceased to grow in height, which 

 happens at the age of seventy to a hundred years. After weed- 

 ing out all soft woods, &c , that may have been nurses to the 

 young oaks, or wdiich may have stolen into the forest, favoured 

 by the light thin foliage of the latter, a thinning of the oaks is 

 made. These two fellings remove from J to | of the trees. At 

 the latter clearance, or a little earlier, the beech (also the spruce, 

 the silver fir, or the hornbeam) is sown or planted underneath. 

 Where the shadow thrown on the ground by the oaks is at all 

 considerable, planting is to be preferred. Later clearances of 

 the standards are made, when necessary, similar to those carried 

 out in connection with the natural reproduction of the beech, 

 with this difference, however, that the young beeches are not 

 meant to acquire the dimensions of timber trees of the first order 

 (i.e., above 60 ft.), but merely to serve for the protection and im- 

 provement of the soil. 



3. By reproducing the oak by natural means in mixed forests 

 of beech with oak, and by nursing it at the cost of the surround- 

 ing beeches. 



4. By sowing it on sunny spots during the preparatory fellings 

 in the natural reproduction of the beech. 



5. By planting it on similar places during the subsequent 

 clearances of the beech. 



6. By favouring it as much as possible i}i all thinnings, 

 whether in youth or at a more advanced age. 



If oaks have not been grown in groups, but scattered singly 

 among beeches, and if the latter be suddenly thinned to aid 

 natural reproduction, or for any other reason, the oaks which, 

 it may be accepted, are then from 100 to 120 years old, and 

 which"^ must first reach a riper age ere they fall by the axe, 

 become dry in the crown, and the trunk sends forth a propor- 

 tionate quantity of shoots. The reason is obvious — as long as 

 the trunk has enjoyed the side shade of the beeches, it has shot 

 rapidly upwards, and all the biuls have not been able to develop 

 themselves. The dormant buds now exposed to the sunlight 

 become fully developed, and making use of the sap on its up- 

 ward progress, little finds its way to the summit of the tree. 

 1'he removal of these shoots has been found of no avail, as others 

 are rapidly formed ; experience has shown, however, that in a 



