THE NEW FORESTRY. 89 



SECTION III. CONIFERA MIXTURES. 



The best guide to go by with conifers is the rate of growth 

 in height, which in all the species is indicated from the first, 

 making due allowance for transplanting. Thus it will be as 

 easily seen, in a nursery quarter as in a plantation, that the 

 Corsican fir and the Siberian fir, for example, are unsuitable 

 companions, because the one soon overtops the other and 

 becomes the dominant tree. Rapid growers and slow growers 

 should not be planted together, and, of course, what are called 

 the " dwarf " conifera are unsuitable for mixed plantations 

 altogether. Our object in restricting the species according to 

 their height is economy where timber production is an object. 

 It must be plain to anyone that, quality and other conditions 

 being equal, the tree that grows soonest to profitable dimen- 

 sions must be the best to plant, and that the species that 

 associate best together in this respect must make the best 

 mixture, and the difference in this respect among different 

 species is very great indeed. If the above rule is adhered to, 

 the planter cannot go far wrong, and for further information 

 on the habits of different species he may consult Veitches' 

 " Manual of the Conifera " and other works, and any respec- 

 table nurseryman will give him information on the subject. 



Another question in connection with the conifera is that 

 of mixing the Abies with the Pinus family. They are com- 

 monly mixed, but they do best separate. The Scotch, 

 Corsican, Austrian firs, and other members of the pine family 

 grow equally well in a moist or dry climate, provided the 

 ground is well drained ; but the Abies family do not like either 

 a dry soil or a dry climate, and the common spruce, for 

 example, often perishes outright under such conditions or falls 

 a prey to disease, cold, dry, cutting winds especially causing 

 much damage to the tree. Inside of mixed woods it succeeds 

 better, but it is not a tree for the margin of a wood on a dry 

 soil or an exposed easterly aspect. In selecting the species 

 for a mixed wood, it should in any case be remembered that 

 the common Norway spruce, silver spruce, Scotch fir, Corsican 

 fir, and larch are proved timber-trees the three first supplying 

 most of the pine timber used everywhere and in any mixture 

 of the conifera they should predominate. 



SECTION IV. MIXTURES OF BROAD-LEAVED SPECIES. 



The different species of this family that grow almost as 

 evenly together as by themselves, and therefore suitable for 



