BRITISH FOREST TRKI > 279 



on the better, fresh or moist deposits in low-lying tracts, or 

 on the lower uplands and undulating localities, in contra- 

 distinction to the distinctly hilly ground on which the 

 beech asserts itself most readily, it is perhaps deserving 

 of more attention than any other forest tree as a protecting 

 and soil-improving species distinctly conducive to the finer 

 development of the more valuable varieties of forest 

 produce. In many instances these localities, if still under 

 forest crops, are somewhat too damp, moist, and frosty for 

 the beech, or its growth is so energetic as in some cases to 

 interfere with the further development and expansion of the 

 light-loving species forming by far the most remunerative 

 portion of the crop, and in many respects the hornbeam 

 accommodates itself, better than any other shade-bearing 

 species, in general growth and as regards special character- 

 istics, to the sylvicultural treatment carried out in favour of 

 the dominant mixed crop. Being slower in growth than the 

 beech, hornbeam even on the richer classes of soil never 

 interferes with the more rapidly developing oak, ash, maples 

 or elm ; and as it attains its economic maturity between 

 sixty and eighty years of age, or just at the time when the 

 oak requires a larger measure of growing-space, and a freer 

 enjoyment of light, air, and sunshine, it can then be utilised 

 and reproduced as underwood, regenerating itself naturally 

 by seed as well as by stoles or shoots from the stool. At 

 that age, too, its timber is more remunerative than that of 

 beech, or even than oak of the same age. Where oak forests 

 are being reproduced, a self-sown growth of hornbeam is 

 welcomed, as, if cut back during the weedings and clearings, 

 it still asserts itself as protective underwood to the advantage 

 both of the soil and of the principal crop, although its fall 

 of leaves is neither so great, nor productive of such rich 

 humus as in the case of the beech. 



On damp exposures subject to frost, hornbeam in 



