FORESTRY 



most readily to close planting, and 

 such plantations are naturally the 

 most easy of management. 



Dealing with the timber trees in 

 the degrees of importance, pride of 

 place must be given to the oak, 

 which for timber purposes may be 

 planted, in the case of J 7 onng trees, 

 within 3 ft of each other, so as to 

 destroy the chance of lateral 

 branches asserting themselves and 

 destroying the strength of the main 

 trunk. Even when thinned the 

 trees in an oak plantation should 

 never be more than 12 ft. from 

 each other. 



The beech, the best tree for a 

 calcareous or chalky soil, is not of 

 great value as a timber tree. The 

 wood is best if cut in the middle of 

 winter, when the vitality of the 

 tree is at its lowest ebb, and is use- 

 ful for brush handles, dairy utensils, 

 chairs, and other purposes not of 

 the first importance. 



Spruce, Pine and Fir Planting 



If planting for the present 

 generation, and not for posterity, is 

 the object to be considered, the 

 most remunerative plantations to 

 lay down are these of spruce, pine, 

 and fir. These will thrive in com- 

 paratively poor soils, cost less to 

 establish than woods of any other 

 kind, show a cash return from 

 thinnings at an earlier date, and 

 attain maturity sooner. British 

 forests have been denuded of coni- 

 ferous timber to an unparalleled 

 extent by the demands of the Great 

 War, and both in Britain and on 

 the Continent the prices which 

 obtain on the market will be un- 

 precedented for many years. Larch 

 is always a good marketable timber, 

 and there is a level demand for 

 ash in the furniture trade, but it 

 is doubtful if ash, sycamore or 

 chestnut will command the prices 

 they have clone in the past. v 



For the first few years after plant- 

 ing, young trees, except conifers, 

 need very little in the way of 

 attention. Plantations of spruce, 

 pine, and fir should be gone over 

 carefully to look for the defect 

 generally known as pronging. 

 Pronging is the presence and 

 growth of a superfluous side shoot 

 near the top of the main stem, 

 dividing the stem at the apex into 

 two false heads, like the prongs of a 

 catapult. The continued exist- 

 ence of this secondary stem will 

 prove fatal to the tree both from an 

 ornamental and useful point of 

 view, and therefore it is necessary 

 to cut it ruthlessly and promptly 

 away, otherwise the symmetry of 

 the tree will be destroyed. Some 

 foresters merely break \he second- 

 ary stem away from the main trunk 

 and leave it hanging on the tree 

 to die. 



3252 



The common-sense object of 

 practical forestry is to obtain the 

 heaviest yield of timber possible 

 per acre, consistent with profitable 

 marketable quality ; hence it is a 

 golden rule in sowing or planting 

 to err rather on the generous side 

 as regards the quantity of seeds or 

 young trees established per acre. 

 It is always possible, and, indeed, 

 beneficial, to thin plantations which 

 are overloaded with young timber. 

 It is not so easy to make up a plan- 

 tation which, for reasons of false 

 economy, has been thinly planted, 

 and in which for want of mutual 

 support the young trees are weedy 

 and leggy. Naturally, the closer 

 trees are planted together, the 

 longer, straighter, and more valu- 

 able will be the timber. 



Thinning of woods should be in 

 exact proportion to the amount of 

 exposure to which they are sub- 

 jected. For instance, a plantation 

 upon a bleak hillside in Scotland 

 needs less attention than one in the 

 Lowlands. Thinning should also be 

 carried out with a lighter hand on, 

 and towards the edge of, the wood 

 which faces the direction of the pre- 

 vailing winds, since the outer belt 

 of trees will afford some protection 

 from the violence of tempests. 



In old and neglected woods, 

 where thinning has not been carried 

 out for some time, the operation 

 should be spread over a number of 

 years, otherwise the sudden ex- 

 posure of the whole plantation to 

 wind and weather may cause seri- 

 ous and permanent injury. The 

 tops of growing trees should not be 

 opened too freely with the idea of 

 admitting light and air. This only 

 checks their growth, and is better 

 deferred until the trees have nearly 

 attained their full height. In addi- 

 tion, when young trees are very 

 thin in the trunk in proportion to 

 their height, to tamper with their 

 heads will tend to cause the trees 

 to grow crooked. 



Thinning Mixed Plantations 

 When thinning an old wood in 

 which there is no undergrowth or 

 coppicing, it is necessary to pre- 

 serve a canopy overhead, that is to 

 say, a complete covering of foliage, 

 in order to protect the roots and 

 conserve moisture. Where, how- 

 ever, the wood is liberally planted 

 with underwood this is not neces- 

 sary, as the coppice will form a 

 screen. Indeed, in dealing with 

 these mixed plantations it is often 

 better to thin the older timber with 

 a free hand in order to admit plenty 

 of light and air to the coppice, 

 which may prove to be the most 

 profitable part of the plantation. 

 During the first seventy years of its 

 existence an oak plantation needs 



FORESTRY 



to be thinned approximately once 

 every ten years, according to soil 

 and situation. At the end of that 

 period, once in every twenty years 

 is sufficient. Pines and other tim- 

 bers, being, generally speaking, of 

 more rapid growth, require thin- 

 ning at more frequent intervals. 



The quality of timber depends 

 upon its weight, toughness, and 

 durability or hardness. Where the 

 tissues are closely compressed and 

 the structure is dense, the wood 

 will be heavy, but timber which 

 contains much watery sap shrinks 

 rapidly, and decays quickly when 

 exposed, owing to excessive evap- 

 oration. Oak and pine shrink 

 very little, and slowly ; elm, 

 poplar, and willow very rapidly. As 

 a general rule those trees which 

 take the longest time to attain 

 maturity yield the hardest tim- 

 ber, e.g. box, yew, and ebony, 

 although the last is not a British 

 timber tree. Oak is hardest when 

 grown in loam upon a subsoil of 

 blue clay, which renders the ground 

 ferruginous, i.e. impregnated with 

 oxide of iron. Soil of this nature 

 improves the quality of the timber, 

 but at the same time retards the 

 full development of the tree. 



Use of Axe and Saw 



The axe is by no means the best 

 implement to employ where econ- 

 omy of timber is desirable. The 

 simplest form of felling, as prac- 

 tised in Britain, is " grubbing." 

 This consists of clearing away the 

 soil from around the roots of the 

 trees, so that they are exposed, and 

 then attacking them with axe and 

 pick. As its supports are loosened 

 the tree readily falls by its own 

 weight, and though the remaining 

 attached roots must be severed 

 afterwards, this method has the 

 advantage of leaving no stump in 

 the ground, which saves consider- 

 able time and trouble where it is in- 

 tended to follow with the plough, 

 or to replant with timber. The 

 use of the double-handed saw is, 

 perhaps, the most general method 

 of tree f elling, though this as a rule 

 necessitates the employment of the 

 time of three men, two to saw and a 

 third to wedge the cut with an iron 

 wedge and sledge hammer, in order 

 to prevent the weight of the trunk 

 gripping the sawblade in the cut. 



The simplest, quickest, and 

 cleanest method of tree-felling, 

 where a considerable quantity of 

 timber has to be dealt with, is to 

 use a patent steam tree feller, a 

 machine invented in the 19th cen- 

 tury. With the huge demand for 

 timber in Britain, it was freely em- 

 ployed, notably at the felling of the 

 Ercall Woods, near Newport, in 

 Shropshire. It consists of a simple 



