198 BRITISH FOREST TREES 



stake, and the formation of coniferous woods, for one rotation 

 at least, may become a necessity. 



In its requirements as to light, hints may be looked for with 

 regard to the measures requisite for the tending of oak, either in 

 pure or in mixed forests. Freedom from side-shade, and a fair 

 amount of growing space, are necessary for its normal develop- 

 ment, although, until after growth in height has culminated, 

 these should never be permitted in such abundant measure 

 as to allow of rapid expansion in girth at the expense of growth 

 in height. It is particularly in the clearing out of softwoods 

 and of other species interfering with its development, and in 

 the weeding out of indifferent individuals of its own species 

 where they stand too thick, that assistance needs to be 

 given to oak during the thicket stage of growth. When beech 

 is grown along with oak on soil favourable to the development 

 of the former, it has sometimes to be topped in order to 

 free the latter from the pressure of its immediate neighbours. 



Throughout all the later stages of growth tending is 

 mainly confined to thinning out, and there is no other 

 species of forest tree, except perhaps the larch, in regard to 

 which well-regulated thinnings are so necessary ; when they 

 are begun too late, or not continued regularly, or not 

 carried out to a sufficient extent, the effects are almost im- 

 mediately noticeable in more or less imperfect development, 

 exhibited in poverty of crown, weakness of stem, and often 

 in a flush of shoots from adventitious buds along the bole. 

 Only such individuals are suited for retention to the full 

 period of maturity as have normal development both of 

 stem and crown. Without actually much interrupting the 

 canopy, the thinning out of oak forests or groups should be 

 begun early and repeated often, throughout the whole period 

 of tree-forest, except when the necessity of further thinnings 

 has been obviated by partial clearance and underplanting 

 about the seventieth to eightieth year. Cramped or confined 



