126 TRANSACTIOXS OF ROVAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



admitted by either of the other systems. After careful examina- 

 tion of the different methods, it was generally thought that the 

 last method was the one which would ultimately give the best 

 results, although the opinion was also expressed that the second 

 method, in which oak is set free from oppressive beech, while 

 suppressed beech are left to cover the ground, is preferable. 



As in Champenoux, the oak is here, even in spite of the dry 

 soil, the tree that is most encouraged, because of its much greater 

 value, although beech and hornbeam are undoubtedly better 

 adapted for this class of land, for the maintenance of whose 

 productivity the soil must be kept continually covered by means 

 of a canopy so dense as to exclude the rays of the sun from 

 parching an already rather dry soil. 



This was clearly evidenced in another experimental plot which 

 is being operated on farther through the forest, and which the 

 members had the privilege of seeing. This plot is about 60 

 years of age. In the first section, only a very small percentage 

 of the original crop was removed in the shape of thinnings. In 

 the second, a heavier thinning was made, but so carefully that 

 the overhead canopy was preserved practically intact ; while in 

 the third section the oaks were entirely isolated, the whole of the 

 beech and hornbeam having been removed. After experimenting 

 in this manner for a number of years, it was clearly demonstrated 

 that the practical isolation of the trees was the most mischievous 

 method that could have been adopted. The standards became 

 stunted in growth, and their stems were covered with epicormic 

 branches, while the surface of the soil, being exposed to the 

 light, became infested with brambles and other rough herbage, 

 which greatly deteriorated its fertility. In this instance it was 

 clearly proved that the system whereby a gradual thinning takes 

 place, without interfering to any serious extent with the overhead 

 canopy, is by far the most successful. Where the beech is 

 cultivated as a pure crop in this forest, it was a fine sight to see 

 the trees, with their white-grey bark, grow so tall and dense that 

 one could scarcely see through them for a distance of 30 yards. 

 It also demonstrated how easily beech can adapt itself to a thin 

 and dry soil, which for other purposes is practically useless. A 

 good deal of this poor land was seen outside the forest, where 

 corn and other crops were so miserable as to make them scarce 

 worth harvesting. 



Many years ago, when agriculture was much more prosperous 



