io 4 BRITISH FOREST TREES 



seem advisable each time these operations are under 

 consideration. 



Such cases of doubtful success are just as frequent on the 

 dry slopes of low hills and uplands, as on the more level tracts 

 or plateaux. Pure pine forests are often just as much out of 

 the question as pure forests of spruce, for whilst the latter is 

 slow in closing up to form canopy, and inactive in growth 

 generally, the former is apt to become interrupted in canopy 

 at too early a stage of development, and to fail in affording 

 to the ground the protection so specially requisite on soils 

 of inferior quality. In mixed forests consisting equally of 

 spruce and Scots pine, or of spruce to half the number, 

 and Scots, black and Weymouth pines forming the other 

 half, the best possible attainable results are perhaps achiev- 

 able, the ultimate tending of the crop being dependent on 

 the relative development of the different species. In 

 Hanover it was usual, at the time when sowing stood in 

 greater favour among sylviculturists than planting, to mix 

 and sow spruce and Scots pine seed in the proportion of five 

 to one, the pines being regarded solely as nurses, and cut 

 out as soon as they began to inconvenience the spruce with 

 their shade. 



That, in equally mixed spruce and pine forest, the latter 

 often becomes the dominant species, is due to inefficient 

 tending more than anything else, for, unless some special 

 attention be paid to the spruce during the clearings and 

 thinnings, it either remains dwarfed as underwood, or at any 

 rate has no fair chance of developing until the canopy of the 

 pine becomes naturally interrupted. Many mixed woods of 

 this description yield good returns if the pines are cleared 

 away wherever the spruce shows need of freer enjoyment of 

 light and air, and stems are left only here and there on 

 the better patches to increase rapidly in girth over the 

 well-protected soil. 



