THE BEECH. 311 



Soil. — Beech requires a soil which is at least of middling 

 depth, of a moderate degree of porosity, fresh and fertile ; it 

 thrives best on loamy soils, and especially on marls, and on 

 calcareous soils generally ; also on sandy soils, provided they 

 are thoroughly fresh and contain water at a moderate depth 

 in the subsoil. Wet soils are unsuited, and inundations fatal, 

 to beech. 



//. Sk((po and Dei'f'loimienf. 



The stem of the beech divides, as a rule, only in the upper 

 part ; the crown remains oval until towards the end of the 

 principal height growth, when it becomes flat or rounded off 

 at the top. Owing to its shade bearing power, the crown 

 extends far down the stem, if grown in the open. In crowded 

 woods, the crown occupies about the upper third of the height 

 of the tree. 



The root system extends to a moderate depth, the tap-root 

 being of no importance after the first 5 or 6 years. Beech is 

 of slow height growth during the first years of life, compared 

 with other broad leaved species ; when from 20 to 30 years 

 old, the rate of height growth increases, so that it outgrows 

 the other broad leaved indigenous species, as a rule also the 

 oak, reaching an ultimate height of about 110 feet, and 

 under specially favourable conditions considerably more. In 

 Normandy trees up to 170 feet high have been measured. 



Spruce, silver fir, larch, Weymouth pine, and Douglas fir 

 attain, under ordinary conditions, a greater height than beech, 

 though the silver fir grows slower during early youth. 



The volume increment of beech is greater than that of the 

 other indigenous broad leaved species, but smaller than that 

 of the principal conifers. According to the latest yield tables 

 the total production of timber and firewood in the course of 

 100 years, on a locality of the first quality, should be, in the 

 case of : — 



