92 BRITISH FOREST TREES 



Young crops of spruce do not form canopy so soon as 

 those of Scots pine, though in plantations it is attained 

 earlier than by sowing or with natural reproduction. On 

 sunny localities the soil is apt to become overgrown with 

 weeds like Atropa, Digitalis, Epilobium, Rubus and Urtica, 

 with Vacdnium, Carex, Srirpus and Juncus on the moister 

 patches, which usually interfere with the growth of the young 

 plants and occasionally choke them altogether ; but on dry 

 and shallow soil the dangers arising from dry winds and direct 

 insolation are greater. Frost in general does more damage, 

 by lifting the young plants out of the ground, than is 

 occasioned by the actual degree of cold to which they are 

 exposed. Young growth, particularly in woods that have 

 been formed by planting, is greatly exposed to danger from 

 the large brown pine weevil (Hylobius abietis}, which bores 

 into the young shoots, and often ruins whole crops formed 

 where the stumps of the mature crop have neither been 

 grubbed up nor barked after the harvesting of the mature 

 fall of timber. 



Until the young crop forms canopy, the growth of the 

 individual plants is rather towards lateral extension than in 

 the direction of increase in height, but when once they 

 have closed up (which usually occurs about the twelfth or 

 twentieth year according to the quality of the soil), and the 

 twig-shoots begin to interlace, the development of the 

 leading shoot becomes vigorous, the more so in proportion 

 to the density of the crop and the quality of the soil. As 

 they are densely foliaged and make little demand on 

 growing-space, young thickets of spruce generally stand 

 very thick, and completely cover the soil. So much so is 

 this the case, that, where sowings have been too thick, the 

 development is greatly interfered with ; but in general the 

 natural selection of the predominating stems, to form the 

 future crop, goes on normally and quickly, the current 



