436 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ABBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



from naturally-sown raast is always assured ; indeed, the difficulty 

 is to repress the exuberance of that species. Owing to the 

 existence of an ancient law, no thinnings may take place until 

 the sixtieth year; but certain "weedings" and the "heading off" 

 of the most aggressive betches are permitted. The nominal 

 rotation-period for oak is about 280 years, and for beech 140 years; 



LARCH AND SCOTS PINE, WITH BEECH UNDERWOOD. AT BAMBERG. 



Larch and Scots pine, 180 years old. 

 This is the second rotation of the beech. 



but many of the oaks are 300 to 400 years old, and the present 

 young woods will probably be felled at an age not exceeding 200 

 years. In the Spessart the age-classes are irregularly represented. 

 Old oak (200-400 years) and plantations formed within the 

 last forty years so predominate that there is a great deficiency in 

 the middle-age classes. This has necessitated a spreading of the 



