2 Some Problems of Re-aft 'ore station. 



long-tried species, such as the black Italian and the white 

 poplars, cannot at present be determined. 



While, therefore, planters are advised to adhere to the species 

 of hardwoods to which they are accustomed, the case is different 

 in regard to conifers. In the past the planter's choice seldom 

 went beyond Scots pine, Norway spruce, and European larch, 

 with the occasional inclusion of silver fir and Corsican pine, 

 and even less frequently of Weymouth and Maritime pines. 

 This statement refers to plantations established thirty or more 

 years ago, and is also limited to forestry on a commercial scale, 

 and has no reference to ornamental planting. But although 

 not planted on a large scale, enough has been done with certain 

 exotic conifers to warrant their taking an important place in 

 present-day silviculture. The newer conifers whose merits 

 entitle them to attention on economic grounds are, in the first 

 instance, the Douglas fir, the Sitka spruce, and the Japanese 

 larch; and, to a much less extent, Abies grandis, Tsuga 

 Albertiana (=Mertensiana), Pinus insignia (=radiato), and 

 Thuja gig antea (=plicata). 



There are some who urge that native trees alone should be 

 depended on for commercial afforestation, forgetting that such 

 trees, for instance, as the common larch and spruce, are no 

 more natives than those that have just been mentioned, the 

 only difference being that they happened to be introduced 

 somewhat earlier. The list of forest trees that is, trees 

 attaining to timber dimensions strictly indigenous to this 

 country is a very short one. Of conifers, there are only the 

 Scots pine and yew ; while of hardwoods there are the sessile 

 and pedunculate oaks, the beech, the ash, the wych elm, the 

 birch, the alder, the aspen and the cherry. 



The Douglas Fir. Introduced from North-West America 

 in 1828, this tree has been extensively planted in parks and 

 arboreta. It has also been used to a certain extent in mixed 

 plantations, and there are a few examples of pure woods of 

 this species up to sixty years of age. The only two objections 

 that can be urged against the Douglas fir are, first, that it does 

 not thrive well upon a soil containing a high percentage of 

 lime, and second, that, in exposed situations, its top and branches 

 are apt to be broken by wind. As regards its antipathy to lime 

 it may be said that an instance has recently been described J 

 which shows that even on the most pronouncedly calcareous 

 soil of all, namely chalk, fair success has been obtained with 

 Douglas fir. The surface, however, was covered to a depth of 

 2 or 3 inches with the accumulated leaf mould of a former 

 crop of beech. As to the frequency with which the top is 



1 Quarterly Journal of Forestry, Vol. xi., 1917, pp. 1 and 189. 



