CHAP, xii.] Protection of the Soil 275 



evaporation through the action of sun or wind, and helps to 

 maintain the advantageous, non-conducting soil-covering of 

 dead foliage, which gradually becomes of greater benefit to 

 the soil itself and to the growing timber-crop as the process 

 of humification advances. Hence woodland soils, that are 

 judiciously utilized, provide for themselves the very best means 

 of maintaining their productivity, so long as they are treated 

 in such manner as will endow or retain them with the most 

 advantageous degree of freshness or moisture ; for along with 

 this will, from the very nature of the factors upon which this 

 is dependent, certainly be favourably combined the other 

 physical properties and organic conditions which work together 

 in order to produce the highest quantitative and qualitative 

 returns obtainable from any given soil and situation. It stands 

 to reason that these highest results can hardly be expected 

 from the small patches, and clumps, and groves of woodland 

 so often to be found dotted about large estates, more often 

 really for the protection of game than for timber-production, 

 but that they will be most easily and most effectively attained, 

 the larger and the more compact the areas are, which may be 

 set apart for the express purpose of growing timber in a rational 

 manner in accordance with the Principles of Sylviculture. 



T 2 



