194 THE SELF-SOWN OAK WOODS OF SUSSEX. 



XXII. The Self-Sown Oak Woods of Sussex.* 

 By Kalph W. Clutton. 



In this paper I propose to inquire into the following matters 

 connected with the growth and management of self-sown oak woods. 

 Oak will grow in almost any description of clay, from the poorest 

 and stiffest to a good deep loam. As the oak, in its earliest stages of 

 growth, has a long tap-root, a deep soil, free to a certain depth from 

 rock, is necessary to its rapid development. Oak will grow with 

 considerable luxuriance in a gravelly soil, but, on arriving at a size 

 fit to be called timber, it becomes what is termed shaky, and it will 

 be found on felling to be little more than a bundle of laths, utterly 

 unsuitable for the uses to which oak timber is generally put. 



The Position of Oak Woods as affecting their Growth. — There is 

 no tree grown in England more sensitive of exposure to wind than 

 the oak, and the best and fastest growing woods are those in 

 sheltered positions, well inland. There is a tract of country in the 

 south-east of Sussex, lying between Battle and Hailsham, the soil of 

 which is well adapted to the growth of oak, but which, from its 

 nearness to the sea — about ten miles as the crow flies — fails to 

 produce, except in very deep narrow gills, other than short stumpy 

 trees with bushy boughs, evidently thrown out as a protection 

 against the south-west wind. These trees produce knotty and 

 unsaleable timber. About thirty or thirty -five years ago, the 

 planting in St Leonard's Forest was begun with larch and oak, 

 the proportion being about five of larch to one of oak. Since the 

 larches were seven or eight years old, they have been gradually 

 thinned out, and, though in no case have they thoroughly dis- 

 appeared, the land is fairly planted with straight-grown silver- 

 rinded tellars, which bid fair in due time to become a fine oak 

 forest. This land is ordinary forest land. 



Effect of the Periodical Cutting of Underwood. — The periodical 

 cutting of underwood affects the growth of trees, as it affords the 

 oidy opportunity of thinning woods ; thus the thinnings are at 

 longer intervals than, perhaps, is best for the growth of oak timber. 

 The custom in the Wealds of Surrey, Sussex, and Kent is to cut 

 the underwood at intervals of from eight to twelve years. Under- 

 wood is usually sold by auction in November, and in the following 



* An abstract of a paper read at an ordinary general meeting of the Institu- 

 tion of Surveyors, February 16, 1874. 



