n6 Studies in Forestry [CHAP. vi. 



1876) these formed more than 70 % of the total wooded area, 

 as exhibited in the following data ] : 



Mixed forests of 



Broad-leaved trees 50-3 % of total wooded area. 



Broad-leaved trees and Conifers 17-6 % 



Conifers 2-5% 



Pure forests of 



Various species of Trees 26-7% 



Data for Germany are not available. The imperial statistics 

 for 1884 only showed 65 % of the total forest area (which aggre- 

 gates 26 % of the empire) as covered by coniferous crops, 

 whilst 34'5 % were clothed with broad-leaved species ; but the 

 area of mixed forests was not computed. 



In sharp contrast to Sir Herbert Maxwell's dictum, is the 

 following matured opinion of the most celebrated of living 

 sylviculturists, Prof. Gayer of Munich 2 : 



' We may say, in general, that the leading principle in the rational and 

 economic treatment of woods must be less in the direction of pure than 

 of mixed crops, and that the degree to which, and manner in which, mixed 

 woods occur throughout any system of management must be considered 

 as the best test and standard by which one can estimate the knowledge and 

 the capacity of those to whom are entrusted the duties of obtaining the 

 best possible results from any given conditions as to soil and situation.' 



And, to prove that this is no mere new nostrum of these 

 latest days, it may be permitted to quote the late Prof. 

 Grebe of Eisenach, formerly Director of the Saxon forests in 

 Thuringia, who wrote as follows in 1867 3 : 



'The more recent tendency of forestry is and with full justification 

 towards the formation of high timber forests containing a suitable mixture 

 of different species of trees, thereby duly acknowledging the manifold 

 advantages to be gained with respect to increased outturn, more valuable 

 assortments of timber, greater general security, and greater power of 

 resisting inimical influences.' 



1 Gayer, Der gemischte Wald, 1886, p. 9. 



2 Der Waldbau, 3rd edit., 1889, p. 178. 



3 Die Betriebs- und Ertragsregelung der Forste, 1867, p. 151 (2nd edit., 

 1879). See also Preface to the author's British Forest Trees, 1893. 



