1 66 Studies in Forestry [CHAP. vm. 



five to thirty years gives very excellent results, as the demand 

 for this light wood for cigar-boxes and similar requirements is 

 constant, and is not likely to be replaced in the immediate 

 future by any other kind of wood, or by any substitute of 

 a different nature. 



High-forest of trees grown from seed produces absolutely 

 higher monetary returns than ordinary methods of coppice ; but, 

 owing to the greatly increased capital locked up in the soil and 

 the timber stock ranging from the yearling growth to the mature 

 crop, the financial result is often not in favour of the former. 

 Again, in consequence of the bulky nature of forest crops, and 

 the heavy costs of transport, local market conditions have such 

 immense influence in determining the remunerativeness of any 

 particular crop, that no general dictum can be laid down on 

 the matter. This much, however, can be asserted, that, where 

 woodlands are of considerable extent, mixed coniferous crops, 

 worked with a rotation varying from 70 to 100 years, are in 

 general most remunerative where the soil is of the average, or 

 below the average, in quality; whilst, on soils of the better 

 class, where conifers have a predisposition to suffer from 

 fungoid diseases in the roots and stem, mixed crops of Beech, 

 with a suitable large admixture of the nobler species of 

 deciduous trees, really offer the safest and the best investments 

 in the long run. 



With the endless combinations of the various factors deter- 

 mining the rate of growth of, and the quality of timber 

 produced by, woodland crops, the formulation of anything like 

 hard and fast rules must be out of the question. The system 

 of total clearance and artificial reproduction is simplest and 

 easiest to carry out. The young growth is not endangered by 

 the gradual removal of any parent standard trees ; a freer hand 

 is allowed for the intermixture of subordinate species ; and, 

 where it pays to undertake it, the grubbing up of the large 

 quantities of fuel represented by the root-systems is a very 

 simple matter. But, on the other hand, there is much greater 



