CHAP, vii.] Treatment of Mixed Woods 151 



and the merely average classes of forest soil, considerations 

 regarding the conservation of the productive capacity of the land 

 necessitate each Oak being surrounded with Beech. Where 

 this is fully acted up to, there will be seldom more than eight 

 to ten Oaks per acre attaining maturity at 100 to 120 years 

 of age, though on the best classes of soil the number of Oaks 

 in the crop may perhaps amount to as many as thirty to forty 

 per acre. When the Oaks have been introduced in too large 

 numbers at first, an early commencement should be made to 

 reduce them gradually to the proper proportion they are 

 intended ultimately to form in the mature crop. This can 

 best be done by the removal of all stems of indifferent growth. 

 If, in order to obtain very large-girthed timber, it seems desir- 

 able to allow the Oaks to remain on good soil for a second 

 period of rotation of the Beech, they can be left in the numbers 

 above given ; but, before the end of that time, they will, in the 

 latter case, have formed canopy, under which the Beech may 

 still grow up as a tree, though not so as to attain normal dimen- 

 sions. On average classes of soil eight to ten Oaks per acre 

 will, at the end of the second period of rotation, overshadow 

 about one-fourth of the soil, and sixteen to twenty about one- 

 half of the area. 



Beech with Ash, Maple, Sycamore, and Elm. Despite 

 a very considerable density of foliage in the Sycamore under 

 certain circumstances, all these species strongly resemble the 

 Oak in its attitude towards the Beech ; for all are light-demand- 

 ing and of quicker growth at first than the latter. This advantage 

 they usually retain on deep, fresh soils; but otherwise they 

 are, as a rule, caught up in growth by the Beech during the 

 pole-forest stage of development. In many situations they are 

 apt to sow themselves so freely as materially to interfere with 

 the natural reproduction of the ruling, soil-protecting species ; 

 hence it is advisable to utilize them at the time of preparing 

 the soil for the reception of the Beech-mast, and merely to intro- 

 duce them here and there singly or in small patches throughout 



