CHAP, vii.] Treatment of Mixed Woods 157 



cases mixed woods must, towards the end of the period fixed 

 by the Working-Plan for the fall of the mature crop, consist 

 principally of one species, which is usually that most capable of 

 bearing shade. But when this species has been either naturally 

 or artificially reproduced, the most advantageous opportunities 

 are again offered for the re-formation of mixed crops by the 

 introduction of stout transplants of the more valuable timber- 

 producing trees of other genera or species. 



With their denser crops, their better conservation of the 

 productive capacity of the soil, their higher percentage of 

 stems of large dimensions, clean growth, and good technical 

 properties, their power of satisfying demands for various kinds 

 and qualities of timber, and their comparative security against 

 calamities and devastations arising from organic or inorganic 

 causes, it can hardly be denied that mixed forests are more 

 profitable, and rest on a much more secure financial basis, than 

 pure forests, provided always that they are formed of the 

 species of trees for which the soil and situation are best suited, 

 and that the timber grown is such as meets the requirements of 

 the ordinary markets. In fact, as compared with pure forests, 

 mixed woods exhibit the economic paradox of holding out fair 

 promises of a higher rate of annual interest, combined at the 

 same time with better security for that very considerable por- 

 tion of the capital which is represented by the growing stock 

 of timber throughout the woodland area. 



