214 FELLINU AND CONVERSIOX. 



1. Mode of Conrcrsion to be Applied. 



The mode of conversion suitable to any particular fi'lliiig:-nrea 

 depends on the adaptability of the wood and the demand for it. 



(a) The Adaptability of the Wood. 



This varies with the kind, form, dimensions and (]uality of 

 the wood. 



i. Kind of Wood. 



The uses of the different kinds of wood have been already dis- 

 cussed ; it has been shown that conifers are chiefly used as 

 timber and that, of broad-leaved species, it is the light-demand- 

 ing trees, and, above all, the oak, which yield the most valuable 

 timber. 



The following remarks refer to the usual forms of woods met 

 with. Pure beech high forest is generally a fuel forest, and 

 only a small portion of the yield can be treated as timber. 

 Sometimes, owing to a favourable market [as, for instance, in 

 the chair-making districts of Buckinghamshire and Oxford- 

 shire, or in the Ardennes for wooden shoes, &c. — Tr.] this is not 

 the case ; but frequently the timber yield of a pure becchwood 

 is not more than 10 to 20 per cent, of its total yield. 



Wherever aspen, birch, willows, limes, kc, are mixed with 

 beech, there is a rise in the timber yield, but this can only be 

 considerable when oak, ash, sycamore, or elms are mixed with 

 the beech. Such mixtures are the most valuable forms of broad- 

 leaved high forests, as in them the light-demanders thrive best 

 and attain their best shape. The timber yield of such forests 

 may be 20 to 30 per cent, of their total yield, and even more. 



In the Rottenbuch forest range, which is the range richest in 

 fine oak trees of the whole Spessart, the yield of oak-timber 

 between 18G0 and 1880 was 2G per cent, of the total yield. 



The yield of oak-timber does not depend so much on the 

 quantity of oak-trees in a mixed wood as on their age and sound- 

 ness, and throughout the renowned oak-forests of the Spessart 

 usually only 40 per cent., or at most 50 per cent., of the felled 

 oak-trees can be used as timber, the remainder usually yielding 

 onlv inferior iirewood. 



