SOIL AND SURFACE CONDITIONS 135 



luxuL-late for forty or fifty years, or until their tops get 

 under the influence of tlie prevailing wind. But outside 

 these favoured spots conditions are comparatively hopeless, 

 so far as commercial timber is concerned. 



So far as the planting or afforestation of the above 

 classes of soils is concerned, the first and second demand 

 no special attention. Land which is, or was, under grass 

 or tillage, as practically all this class has been at one 

 time or another, must be regarded as beyond the reach 

 of the economic forester in a general way. Sandy and 

 gravelly tracts, on the other hand, are better utilised 

 under forest than in any other way, but it is scarcely 

 necessary to differentiate between them and better land, 

 so far as sylvicultural principles are concerned. Grass, 

 heather, bracken, gorse, etc., all demand special attention 

 in preparing land for planting, but beyond breaking up 

 the surface and subsequent clearing to prevent choking 

 or smothering, the methods of planting are simple 

 enough, and the afforestation of this class of land must 

 be considered as a branch of rural economy differing little 

 from the practice followed in the last two hundred or 

 three hundred years throughout Europe. 



But when the afforestation of the third and fourth 

 classes are advocated, the fact must be recognised that a 

 departure is taking place from all hitherto followed 

 precedents, and new ground is about to be broken. 



As already stated, the British Isles contain about 

 15,000,000 acres of heath or mountain land, a certain 

 proportion of which belongs to the second, but the greater 

 portion to the third and fourth classes of surface described. 

 Much of this land may be regarded as more or less favour- 

 able for planting, but from one-half to probably three- 

 fourths is of such a nature that it would be little short of 

 madness to attempt its afforestation with our present 

 knowledge. 



The total area of mountain land over or under the 1000 



