THE CULTIVATION OF HARDWOODS. 15! 



the oak will have a good chance of holding its own with the 

 beech ; otherwise the latter will tend to suppress it, and to 

 prevent this in a situation which favoured the development of 

 the beech would be a well-nigh hopeless task. 



2. A mixture by single lines should, like the former, be 

 composed of two species of trees planted in alternate lines, and 

 is only suited to situations which will favour the growth of the 

 light-demanding species. The advantages of this system over 

 the former are — (i) that the planting is simpler, and (2) that the 

 trees are more easily tended in youth. 



3. A mixture by strips, which is a modification of (2), is 

 composed of several instead of single lines of each species 

 planted alternately. It is suited to a soil and situation which 

 will be likely to favour the development of the shade-bearing 

 species ; because in this method the light-demanding plants can 

 be more easily fostered by checking the growth of the other. 



4. Mixture by Grotips. — A mixture by groups is one composed 

 of groups of various kinds of trees, or, in other words, an 

 aggregation of miniature pure woods, a proportion of which 

 must be good soil preservers, these being so arranged that they 

 may be of the greatest advantage in maintaining the fertility of 

 the soil throughout the wood. Such a mixture may be com- 

 posed of as many kinds of trees as the nature of the soil and 

 situation will accommodate or necessitate, and is preferable for a 

 variable soil; but in the formation of such woods great care and 

 judgment are required to ensure success. In some of our best 

 hardwood-growing localities, it will frequently be found that within 

 the area of an ordinary sized wood such vagaries are met with in 

 the soil that the adoption of the group system on certain parts 

 will be most advantageous. In such cases it may be not only 

 permissible, but advisable, to combine this system with any or 

 all of the preceding ones. 



{b) Uneven-aged Woods. 



In this country uneven-aged mixtures are not very common, 

 but as time goes on they may become more so where heavy 

 timber is required. Such mixtures will, as a rule, be started 

 as pure woods, or as mixtures of light-demanding trees, and 

 will be cultivated as such until about middle life, when they 

 will be gradually thinned out to a certain number of trees per 



