68 T5RTTISH FOREST TREES 



time fair returns for the capital represented by soil and 

 growing-stock. For medium circumstances a rotation of 

 seventy to eighty years is what is naturally indicated as the 

 most remunerative, although, where large timber is well paid 

 for and in good dema nd, the fall may often profitably be 

 delayed till the hundredth, or even the hundred and 

 twentieth year ; for such long periods of rotation, however, 

 favourable soils and situations are a sine qua non, both from 

 the sylvicultural and the monetary points of view. 



Pure Forests of Scots Pine. It cannot be denied that 

 under certain circumstances pure forests of pine offer 

 distinct advantages. They make little demand on the 

 soil, are easily formed, tended, and worked, and yield 

 both in the thinnings, and at the final harvesting of the 

 crop, good useful kinds of timber generally saleable, and 

 capable of supplying requirements of the most various 

 descriptions. Where, however, accumulations of snow and 

 ice are likely to occur in exposed localities, the formation 

 of pure forests of Scots pine is not to be recommended ; 

 the interest of the owner will most probably be better served 

 by the formation of mixed forests. But the greatest draw- 

 back of pure forests of equal age, which the usual system of 

 total clearance with artificial reproduction entails, lies in 

 the defective and only partial protection which the older 

 woods are able to afford the soil ; this is more especially 

 the case on poor dry soils unsuited for the growth of other 

 species along with the pine, and where it is not possible to 

 regenerate the pinewoods naturally under parent standards. 



For the production of large and valuable stems of Scots 

 pine, prolongation of the fall of the whole crop would be 

 a costly and unremunerative measure ; but a choice always 

 remains between retaining well-grown groups on good patches 

 of soil, or the selection of healthy, well-developed trees as 

 standards here and there over the area being reproduced. 





