THE NEW FORESTRY. 1/7 



SECTION III. UNDERWOOD SHADE BEARERS. 



It has been stated in Chapter III. that underwood, in the 

 old sense of the word, is incompatible with dense forest-tree 

 culture ; and so it is. It is an advantage, however, to have 

 over-thinned woods stocked with good underwood, because 

 of its sheltering influence to the trees and soil, but in dense 

 timber it is inadmissible except as covert for game, and then 

 only the few shade-bearers will succeed that are named in the 

 list given elsewhere. It is not sufficiently understood by 

 owners of game preserves, who are constantly making 

 enquiries on this subject, that there are few if any species of 

 shrub or low tree that naturally prefer the shade of other 

 trees ; they all love the light, and what destroys underwood 

 so frequently in woods is shade. For planting as under- 

 cover, therefore, those species that bear shade best should be 

 planted, and no other. If this was done in a systematic way, 

 in conjunction with the scheme suggested in Chapter II., we 

 can conceive of thoroughly well timber-stocked areas on 

 private estates combined with game covert far superior to 

 anything yet attempted in that way. 



The shade-bearers for under-planting are the spruce, 

 beech, hornbeam, holly, yew, rhododendron, and snowberry. 

 These are the best shade-bearers we have, and the beech is 

 the best in the list. Young beech trees have the advantage 

 that although the leaves die and turn brown in autumn, they 

 are not shed, but remain upon the branches during winter, 

 thus providing a warm shelter. We have often seen the 

 beech growing freely under the dense shade of deciduous 

 trees, and German foresters often take advantage of it for 

 under-planting. The hornbeam ranks next to the beech, 

 and the other species mentioned are well known. The snow- 

 berry is perhaps not so well known as a shade-bearer, but we 

 can testify that it is one of the best for either fox or game 

 covert. It grows about seven feet high, extends by suckers, 

 which are thrown out freely, and owing to its erect habit and 

 close way of growing it collects the dead leaves of other trees 

 between its leafless stems until quite a thicket is formed that 

 pheasants and other game birds and animals resort to during 

 winter. But our own inclination in planting an under- 

 covert of the kind here described would be to use the beech in 

 a proportion equal to all the others, and to plant thick either 

 over the whole area or in patches here and there. 

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