188 THE DEVELOPMENT OF BRITISH FORESTRY 



quantity of clean timber to be grown in the least time 

 and the easiest possible manner, and this can only be 

 accomplished by growing trees in even-aged masses, so 

 that competition for light will do the work which would 

 otherwise require skill and labour on the part of the 

 forester. The urgent demands of the future will be for 

 timber which can be converted at the least expense, and 

 with the least possible waste, into saleable products, and 

 the longer and cleaner the stem produced the more likely 

 is this to be the case. Plantations must, therefore, be 

 formed and grown in such a way that the minimum of 

 labour is required in their production from the time of 

 planting until remunerative thinnings are possible. 



Coppice with standards cannot produce high - class 

 timber in large quantities, because the system favours 

 the perfect development of a few individuals at the ex- 

 pense of the majority, rather than leading to uniform 

 quality throughout. Whatever its merits may be under 

 certain circumstances, it is no longer adapted for British 

 conditions, unless the nav}^ is to revert to wooden ships, 

 hurdles and wickerwork are to take the places of wire 

 and iron, and poles, bark, and other minor forest products 

 regain their old values in Britain. 



The selection system, again, is quite unsuited for exposed 

 districts, in which the height growth of trees is none too 

 great, even when grown in close order. In sheltered 

 localities and good soils it gives better results, but not 

 sufficiently good to yield an adequate return for the 

 trouble of managing woods worked by it. In the case 

 of first-class ash ground this system might be used with 

 that species, but this is probably the only instance in 

 which it could be justified as a commercial system at 

 the present day. 



From whatever point of view the various sylvicultural 

 systems are studied it becomes evident that even-aged 



