PRESENT CONDITION OF ENGLISH FORESTRY 31 



to any considerable extent. But after that stage is reached 

 the subsequent treatment of the crop depends a great deal 

 upon the individual point of view of the proprietor. In some 

 cases he wants timber or poles for estate purposes, in others 

 he wants plantations which will provide shelter for the 

 greatest possible head of game, while another will probably 

 look upon his woods in much the same way as his pleasure 

 grounds, park timber, or any other ornamental feature which 

 may exist upon the estate. In the one case, therefore, 

 sylviculture is practised more or less throughout the life of 

 the plantation; in another it practically terminates by the 

 time the trees are 20 to 30 feet high ; and in the third case 

 it may never be allowed to begin, or may develop unaided 

 by artificial agency until the crop is fully mature and com- 

 mencing to decay. 



The arboricultural aspect of English woods is one which 

 is often pushed to the front as an excuse for bad forestry. 

 We are told that landowners do not maintain their woods 

 for profit so much as for their ornamental features, and as 

 an amenity to a country estate. If this be so, the wonder 

 is that the results in this direction are so miserably bad, 

 and that English woods in many cases, instead of exhibiting 

 the most attractive features which woodlands are capable of, 

 are more often as insipid and monotonous as they can 

 be. Possibly this may sometimes arise from the mistaken 

 idea that the only type of tree worth looking at is that 

 which possesses a full, well-developed crown, such as the 

 typical park or hedgerow tree. Such trees are often pointed 

 to with pride as examples of the result of giving them 

 plenty of room, and in the old days it is possible that the 

 forester or his equivalent in the dialect of the locality had 

 a lurking idea that such trees were the ideal composition 

 of a plantation. But, as most people know, any attempt to 

 grow such trees under ordinary plantation conditions ends 

 in failure, unless the plantation is converted into a park-like 

 degree of openness. The general result of attempting it is 

 the production of coarse timber and unsightly trees, for 

 anything more unsightly could hardly be imagined than 

 trees with a coarse branchy stem, short bole, and crown 

 which has been arrested in its development after a number 



