PROFITABLE TIMBER TREES 63 



what they are to-day. Not only was oak, as we have already 

 seen, an indispensable factor in our economic and political 

 pursuits, but the coppice or underwood with which it was 

 associated had a real instead of a nominal value, which is all 

 that can be said for it to-day. While the oak was steadily 

 maturing, therefore, the land was at the same time carrying 

 a crop which could be reaped at short intervals, and there 

 was thus an actual as well as a prospective return from the 

 soil. To secure the same benefits now, we must adopt other 

 systems of sylviculture than those of the eighteenth century. 

 Coppice with standards not only gives us a crop for which 

 there is no demand, but produces oak of a nature which does 

 not meet with modern requirements. Short stems and 

 crooks are no longer wanted, but long clean boles with as 

 little crown as possible. These can only be produced in 

 what is technically known as " high-forest," in which the trees 

 are drawn up by close contact with their neighbours. Oak 

 must therefore be planted thickly, or mixed with other 

 species which will effect the same purpose. Oak is not only 

 a slow grower but a light-demander, and, planted with most 

 species and left to take its chance, usually results in its 

 becoming annihilated after the first fifty years. Even with 

 a comparatively slow-growing species like beech, oak is 

 unable to hold its own, except perhaps on strong soils in 

 which the former does not thrive. 



Whatever species are used, therefore, care must be taken 

 to keep it in check until its height-growth is practically 

 over, and yet at the same time avoid that degree of open 

 order which would defeat the object aimed at. Simple as 

 this looks on paper, it is probably one of the most difficult 

 things in practice to grow clean oak in a mixed plantation 

 without overcrowding it on the one hand and giving it 

 too much room on the other, and it is especially difficult 

 under the conditions prevailing in English woods. The 

 finest oak timber has usually been grown in pure woods or 

 groups, or by a favourable combination of circumstances 

 which cannot be provided on a large scale. Planted pure, 

 it is neither profitable to the planter nor to itself, for 

 it thins itself too rapidly to begin with, and before its 

 thinnings are of much value, or its height-growth has 



