WORKING-PLAN FOR THE ALICE HOLT FOREST. 93 
stock of timber of about 1000 cubic feet with about ro cords of 
firewood per acre. Although this is a very moderate result, still, 
taking into consideration the height-growth, and the fact that 
the woods were heavily thinned in past years, they should be 
retained as oak-woods. Some difficulty is met with in consider- 
ing the large areas of the second-class oak-woods. The sample 
areas show a mean height of 52 feet, a mean diameter of 
13 inches, with a probable stock consisting of 700 cubic feet of 
timber and seven cords of firewood per acre. Taking these 
figures as a whole, they do not indicate a sufficiently high 
quality to justify the areas being maintained as oak-woods. It 
happens, however, that there is a considerable difference in the 
growing stock in different parts of these woods. There are 
areas scattered over them which show quite as good oak as the 
first-class areas, while other parts deserve to be classed as 
third-class, though too small to be shown separately on the 
map. Under these circumstances, the only rational way of 
dealing with the areas shown as second-class oak will be to 
leave the better parts as oak-woods and to convert the rest into 
woods of better paying species. 
(a) Zreatment of the First-class Oak- Woods. 
As already stated, these woods have been heavily thinned in 
the past, so that the average acre does not contain more than 
about 63 trees. Of these it was found on examination of the 
stock on the sample plots that about 45 are of a sufficiently 
good quality to be allowed to grow into large timber, while the 
remaining 18 are of inferior shape and development, and these 
should be taken out. The cutting of these trees will further 
reduce the density of the crop, and it is, therefore, proposed to 
underplant it with beech. This measure will, as soon as the 
beech has taken hold of the ground, insure a gradual improve- 
ment of the yield-capacity of the locality. In some places the 
remaining trees will be fairly evenly distributed over the ground, 
in others, they will, more or less, stand in groups, leaving here 
and there small blanks; these should be planted up with fast- 
growing conifers, more particularly with larch or Douglas fir 
(the Vancouver or Oregon variety), species which will have 
reached full marketable dimensions when the time comes round 
for the regeneration of the oaks. The more rapidly this measure 
is carried out, the better for the future development of the 
