CHAPTER VI 



ON THE ADVANTAGES OF MIXED TIMBER-CROPS 

 OVER PURE WOODS 



AT p. 33 of the Nineteenth Century for July, 1 891, Sir Herbert 

 Maxwell, Bart., in his article on Woodlands, in endeavouring to 

 assist landowners towards a better system of Forestry than at 

 present exists throughout Britain, makes a statement that the 

 general bad growth of our forest trees as timber trees is attribut- 

 able to the fact that 



'Mixed planting is generally practised, in sharp contrast to what 

 Continental foresters call " pure forest " that is, a woodland composed 

 of one species of tree. This is in itself a hindrance to profitable manage- 

 ment, because pure forest is much more easily tended than mixed planta- 

 tion, and the timber is more readily marketable.' 



In England we are not accustomed to look upon the French 

 as a particularly practical nation ; but, in regard to the treatment 

 of their great forests, with which 17-7 % of the total area of 

 France is clothed, it must be admitted that, although the 

 methods adopted are not quite so scientific as in Germany, they 

 are generally of a very high standard and thoroughly practical. 

 Now in France, where sylviculture is well understood and 

 practised, mixed forests form the great bulk of the woodlands, 

 as, according to the last statistics available (Mathieu's, for 



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