190 BRITISH FOREST TREES 



the English oak appears to make somewhat greater demands 

 with respect to light than the sessile oak. 



In copse, or in coppice-woods, the oak is absolutely 

 intolerant of any shade which interferes with the free and 

 undisputed enjoyment of the light and warmth necessary 

 to stimulate the growth of the stool-shoots. 



Attainment of Maturity and Reproductive Capacity. 

 When once the oak has entered the seed-bearing stage, 

 which in woodlands it attains about the sixtieth to seventieth 

 year, a partial seeding takes place every two or three years : 

 but really good seed-years occur only once every six to nine 

 years. The probability of a seed-year can be foretold in 

 the preceding autumn and winter by the thickening of the 

 flower-buds, w r hich are formed most plentifully after hot 

 summers. About 150 acorns run to a pound, and good 

 seed should during experimental tests show a germinative 

 power of about 65 to 70 per cent. 



No attempt to grow historical trees, or to rear giants for 

 the aesthetic edification of future generations, would in 

 general be rational in sylviculture, although at the same 

 time it would be churlish to cut down for sale the large and 

 very often over-mature trees growing here and there at the 

 edge of forests, or near cross-roads, and perhaps known far 

 and wide locally as old trees for the last two or three 

 generations ; but the oak can easily attain an age of over 

 200 years as a forest tree, before beginning to show signs of 

 over-maturity or senile decay. When grown in pure forest, 

 it is usually thinned out strongly about the seventieth to 

 eightieth year, and then planted up with underwood of 

 shade-bearing species (beech), the standards being left till 

 removed along with the underwood seventy to eighty years 

 later. Grown in beech woods having a rotation of ninety to 

 a hundred and twenty years, good oaks are often left over till 

 the second fall, when they are removed first to allow of the 



