258 BRITISH FOREST TREES 



degree of shade on rich, fresh soils, than on situations 

 deficient either in moisture or in fertility ; but to underplant 

 oak with maples, as is done in Holland, is, despite the 

 greater relative humidity of the air, in accordance neither 

 with the true natural requirements of these species, nor 

 with the fundamental principles of sylviculture. Better 

 results, both for the soil and the increment on the standard 

 trees, might undoubtedly and confidently be expected if the 

 underwood were made to consist of the soil-improving 

 species, beech or hornbeam. 



It is especially in high forests of beech that maple and 

 sycamore reach their finest development when scattered as 

 single individuals, or in knots of a few trees, which can re- 

 ceive any requisite attention that may be thought necessary 

 during the ordinary operations of thinning out. When in 

 good growth, they hold out the full period of rotation (100 

 to 1 20 years), and are harvested as large-girthed valuable as- 

 sortments of timber whilst the beech is being reproduced ; 

 but except on the better soils, and the more favourable 

 situations, they have usually to be removed at an earlier 

 age. During the regeneration of the beech, self-sown 

 seedlings of these species frequently make their appearance 

 to a greater or less extent, and very often the mistake has 

 been made of allowing them to remain in too great number 

 as individuals, or in patches almost large enough to be called 

 groups ; in such cases, where the superfluous individuals 

 have not been removed in favour of the young crop of beech 

 during the earliest clearings and weedings, the development 

 of the ruling species is greatly interfered with by the more 

 rapidly developing maples, as soon as these have outgrown 

 the danger of suppression by rank grass and weeds, and 

 not infrequently the beech entirely disappears when they 

 form canopy in the thicket stage of development. As 

 in the case of the ash, which is very commonly found asso- 



