44 ENGLISH WOODLANDS 



growing oak. In many other woods, originally 

 planted as woods of oak and larch, the oak have 

 been smothered by the larch, or at least so 

 many of them have disappeared that when the 

 larch was removed only half a crop of oak was 

 left on the ground. The attempt to grow in 

 the same wood slow-growing oak surrounded by 

 much more numerous quick-growing larch de- 

 manded constant care in the management of 

 the woods, and this care was not always exercised. 



The present position is this : Financial reasons 

 generally make a planter reluctant to plant a 

 pure oak wood, from which there can be no 

 substantial return for a hundred years. With- 

 out the use of larch or some other quick-growing 

 tree it is hard to see how any oak can be planted 

 under present circumstances, and the example of 

 many of the mixed woods planted in the last 

 century show that oak planted among larch 

 are, in the absence of great care in the manage- 

 ment, likely to be smothered by the larch. 



The result of these difficulties is that the 

 planting of pure oak has become uncommon, and 

 mixed woods of oak and larch are diminishing 

 in number. This reduction in the amount of 

 oak planting is a matter for regret. The oak 

 is a noble tree, the pride and characteristic of 



