70 The greater summer-leafing trees 



and loams, where one gets the best results, and it is 

 quite out of harm's way. As a forest tree we should get 

 its strength expressed in a bolder way than when iso- 

 lated as it so often is, and it is also out of danger in 

 groups in parks like Spetchley. 



Though often low in price owing to the frequent falls 

 of trees during storms, the wood of the Field Elm has 

 good and varied uses, and may be and is often employed 

 for purposes which generally the Oak is thought best 

 for, as, for example, flooring and weather-boarding, being 

 of better quality than that of the Mountain Elm. 



The Elm is one of the most prolific of trees, scattering 

 its seed freely, and therefore it is important in all cases 

 of forest plantation to see that the trees come from seed, 

 as the Elm suckers very freely, and there is the danger 

 of getting suckers instead of seedlings. For this purpose 

 good seedling trees of 3 to 4 feet high should be used. 

 The rotation maturity of the Elm as a forest tree is 

 from 80 to 100 years, at which age it will have attained 

 the dimensions that fit it for most usages. There is no 

 merit and no profit in letting it get broken-backed and 

 rotten to the heart as we see it about London. 



No family has such a number of varieties as the Elm 

 and none we stand less in need of. After our own two 

 large native Elms, the smooth Elm, the American Elm, 

 and the Rock Elm are the most worthy of a place in our 

 plantations. 



The Sycamore Maple. A beautiful northern tree, for- 

 gotten often by planters, perhaps by reason of its freedom 

 to spring up from self-sown seed. So we often see it 

 in a crowded state in shrubberies, and its fine form and 

 stature is only revealed when we stand before such trees 

 as those at Knole and at Penshurst. In many districts 



