22 ENGLISH ESTATE FORESTRY 



this particular introduction is going to revolutionise English 

 forestry. The general result of these announcements has 

 been, that planters of ordinary plantations, during the last 

 fifty years or so, have been unable to decide definitely what 

 is or is not the best tree to plant on their particular soils 

 and situations. A species from North America, another from 

 Japan, and probably a third from Siberia, or some other 

 remote part of Europe, has equal claims upon their attention, 

 and the general outcome of their indecision is a mixture 

 of trees which resembles an arboretum or pinetum more than 

 a plantation which is intended to supply the English timber 

 trade with useful timber. 



Another cause of the unsatisfactory condition of English 

 plantations may be traced to the prevalence of rabbits, which 

 do so much to hamper and obstruct English forestry. These 

 pests are responsible for that premature thinning out of the 

 trees which is more or less general before the twentieth year 

 of a plantation's life. In spite of protection by wire netting, 

 it invariably happens that these animals gain access to a 

 plantation before it is proof against their attacks. To certain 

 species, such as Scots fir or larch, they probably do little 

 harm, but with hardwoods generally, such as oak, beech, 

 and ash, their presence is responsible for the thinning out of 

 the trees to an extent which renders the growth of clean 

 timber impossible. 



A frequent cause of the defective condition of plantations 

 is the method of thinning applied to many of them by the 

 older school of forestry. An idea prevailed for many years 

 that a plantation was more easily ruined by a crowded 

 condition during its youth than by any other means. This 

 idea was probably fostered to some extent by the importance 

 and prevalence of the larch as a timber tree. The Duke 

 of Atholl, who introduced this tree to Scottish forestry, was 

 a strong believer in wide planting, and, so far as that tree 

 was concerned, his views on the matter may have been 

 correct. But there is little doubt that the system applied 

 to larch plantations generally was also applied to any other 

 species which happened to be present in plantations through- 

 out the country. Up to within comparatively recent times 

 the ordinary plantation was a novelty in many parts of 



