BRITISH FOREST TRJ.l.- 99 



proportion of the seedlings ; and again, when the repro- 

 duction takes place by sowing or planting, the retention of 

 standards is more likely to be injurious than beneficial. 



Mixed Forests with Spruce as the Ruling Species. Spruce 

 is found forming pure forests over very extensive areas, as it is 

 one of the species which can thrive and attain normal 

 development without an admixture of other kinds of timber 

 trees in the crop. At the same time there is hardly any 

 other species of forest tree in Britain which gains so much as 

 the spruce by the formation of mixed forests, both as 

 regards the unquestionable protection thus afforded to it 

 against dangers, whether of organic or inorganic nature, 

 and in respect to the stimulus thereby secured for the total 

 production of timber per acre, and the better quality of the 

 timber produced. 



In its Alpine home, the larch is frequently to be found 

 naturally associated with spruce at the higher elevations, 

 although artificial admixture of these two species in other 

 localities has often been far from satisfactory. Throughout 

 the mountainous tracts of eastern France, and of central and 

 southern Germany, in particular in the Black Forest, mixed 

 forests of spruce and silver fir are a favourite form of timber 

 crop, except on the Harz mountains, where the climatic 

 factors do not seem to be favourable to the development of 

 the latter. lieech is also often an associate of the spruce, 

 and is to be found frequently in mixed forests of spruce 

 and silver fir. Towards its northern and eastern limits, the 

 species chiefly found growing along with spruce is undoubtedly 

 the Scots pine. These are the trees which are usually found 

 growing as subordinate species in mixed forests where spruce 

 forms the ruling species or matrix, and although other mixtures 

 have been tried artificially, the above-named are those which 

 hold out the best sylvicultural and economical promises. 



When the silver fir finds the soil and situation con- 



H 2 



