204 BRITISH FOREST TREES 



ferable under the shade of the standards that are retained to 

 develop into full maturity. But, for the formation of mixed 

 forests of about the same age, the oak is out of place along 

 with the spruce, as the latter is, during the thicket and pole- 

 forest stages of development, of so much more rapid growth 

 in height that it shoots ahead of the oak, and is very apt to 

 suppress it even when introduced in patches or small groups ; 

 where the groups are larger, the drawbacks of pure forest of 

 oak are noticeable on a small scale. Where, however, it is 

 desired to introduce the oak into woods of spruce, it is best 

 to plant it in small groups surrounded with a girdle of beech, 

 silver fir, or larch, to protect it to a greater or less extent 

 against the more aggressive suppressing pow r er of the ruling 

 species. In spruce tracts generally, the cultivation of mixed 

 forests of purely coniferous species will as a rule be found 

 much more remunerative than any attempt to grow r the oak 

 as a subordinate tree. 



In forests of Scots pine, the oak has also no right to 

 expect a favourable welcome and a home, for on the poorer 

 classes of soil it would not thrive, and on the better classes 

 the principal species would be of so much quicker growth 

 that the oak could not compete with it at all, besides 

 which its admixture to any extent, under either of these 

 circumstances, would only entail forfeiture of some portion 

 of the full remunerative returns that might otherwise be 

 fairly expected from the soil. Where old oaks are still 

 at the present day to be found growing in admixture with 

 Scots pine, they are in all probability only the last survivors 

 of deciduous broad-leaved forests on areas w r here the present 

 ruling species had to be resorted to in order to recuperate the 

 exhausted vigour and productiveness of the deteriorated soil. 



The Formation and Reproduction of Oak forests are usually 

 carried out artificially by sowing or planting in the open, 

 although natural reproduction under parent standards is 



