CHAPTER VI 

 TREES FOR ECONOMIC PLANTING 



FROM a commercial point of view the best trees to plant 

 are such as will produce the largest volume of the most 

 valuable timber in the shortest space of time. 



Amongst the several hundred species of trees that are 

 cultivated in this country it is a remarkable fact that less 

 than twenty can be recommended for profitable planting. 

 Of course many others are valuable as shade and shelter 

 producers, but from a strictly economic point of view, that 

 is to say where the value of the timber is a point of first 

 consideration, only about ten hardwooded and eight coni- 

 ferous species can be included in the list. 



Amongst hardwoods we have the oak, ash, beech, syca- 

 more, elm, Spanish chestnut, willow, poplar, alder and 

 birch ; while coniferous trees would include the larch, 

 Scotch and Corsican pines, common and Sitka spruce, silver 

 and Douglas firs, and possibly the giant Arborvitae and 

 Wey mouth pine. 



The Oak. Than the timber of the oak none other pro- 

 duced in this country is more lasting or valuable indeed, in 

 few other trees are the qualities of strength and durability, 

 hardness and elasticity combined to such an extent. As 

 might be expected, however, the value of oak timber is 

 greatly influenced by soil, that produced on deep, heavy 

 loam or clay lands being of superior quality. The colour 

 of the wood also varies greatly with age from a dark grey 

 to a deep rich brown and even green. Brown oak, which 

 is almost confined to the Midland counties of England, 

 is considered to be wood in the first stage of decay, 

 and attacked by a fungus, and is generally associ- 



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