126 Studies in Forestry [CHAP. vi. 



tion of long, full-wooded, clean stems with comparative freedom 

 from knots and branches, the timber produced attains its 

 highest possible technical and financial value. And owing to 

 the tendency towards confinement of the crown to the upper 

 part of the tree only, to which these favourable results are 

 practically due, a considerable portion of the upper wood is 

 comprised within the bole that must otherwise have been 

 dissipated in the formation of branches of comparatively little 

 technical or monetary value. By concentrating the energy 

 of growth in good bole-formation, the actual cubic content 

 of the stem is not only increased, but also its value per 

 cubic foot, as this rises with the length, straightness, and 

 freedom from flaws occasioned by knots and branches. 



4. Demands of varying nature for Timber can more easily be 

 satisfied. This statement may almost be said to be of an 

 axiomatic nature. It plainly stands to reason that, where several 

 species of trees are grown together on the same area, the classes 

 of material periodically yielded during the necessary operations 

 of tending, thinning, and removal of diseased or already mature 

 individual stems, must offer a considerably greater variety to 

 the different classes of local consumers than is possible in the 

 case of pure forests. And the same holds good when the period 

 comes for the harvesting of the mature crop. At the same time 

 that variations in the local demands can be more easily satisfied, 

 the wider, more general, and more important requirements of 

 timber marts at some distance can also be better met by 

 mixed than by pure forests ; whilst there is less danger of the 

 over-production of any one kind or assortment of timber to 

 any such extent as might possibly glut the market and cause 

 a sudden fall in the prices obtainable. 



5. It is easier to modify or transform the Crop at any time so 

 as to meet the present or the probable future requirements of the 

 market. Of the necessity for such considerations no better 

 example can be given than is shown in the Crown Oak woods 

 of the New Forest, Alice Holt, Parkhurst, and the Forest of 



