116 ENGLISH WOODLANDS 



the cost of management and prejudices English 

 forestry. Outsiders who notice the absence of 

 system and are ignorant of the difficulties of 

 English owners are apt to assume that this 

 want of system is due to negligence on the part 

 of English owners. The causes are, first, the 

 low prices of oak and coppice woods which have 

 now made their systematic development im- 

 possible ; and secondly, because, in fact, a 

 regular system is not so essential in England 

 as it is on the Continent. 



English owners are not incapable of managing 

 their woods on a very accurate system. As 

 long as coppice woods were remunerative their 

 management was completely systematic. At the 

 present day the beech woods of Buckingham- 

 shire are worked on the selection system, with 

 skill, and produce good returns. 



On the Continent the woods frequently are 

 not a part of an estate whose main income is 

 derived from the rents of farms, but are them- 

 selves the main estate. Their owner is anxious 

 to obtain an approximately equal annual income, 

 and in order to do so is obliged to fell annually, 

 to create young woods regularly to replace those 

 which are harvested, and also to make sure that 

 the fellings do not exceed the increment of the 



