AMOUNT PRODUCED. 599 



denser and deeper the higher the leaf canopy, and attains its 

 maximum in mature woods which have been ah-eady thinned 

 and contain advance-growth * provided the soil continues moist. 



The system of management affects the growth of moss, in so 

 far that uneven-aged woods, resulting from natural regeneration 

 by seed, are generally more favourable for the production of moss 

 than even-aged and artificially formed woods. 



Wherever the growth of moss is luxuriant, it regenerates itself 

 after removal for litter more rapidly than under opposite condi- 

 tions. If the moss has been completely removed, an interval of 

 3 to 5 years always passes before it is reproduced, and this may 

 be longer on poor soils. Moss litter weighs about 6 lbs. per 

 cubic foot (104 kilos per cubic meter). 



3. Litter f rum Weeds. 



The forest weeds which are chiefly used as litter are heather, 

 broom, Genista and ferns : less frequently — bilberry-bushes 

 {Vaccinium Myrtillus) and other species of Vacciniiim, reeds, 

 grass, &c. 



Heather,! chiefly ling {Callima vulgaris), flourishes only when 

 fully exposed to light and on sour or heather soil which may be 

 wet or dry. Any blanks or lightly -stocked places on sandy soil 

 fulfil these conditions. Above all, sandy soil, poor in alkalis, 

 with a sour humus and rich in carbon, is thoroughly conducive to 

 a luxuriant crop of heather, which does not appear on mild moist 

 forest humus. On such a soil, after waste lands plantations in 

 lines are best suited for heather-litter, as the regeneration-areas 

 are then most accessible, the production of the heather on such 

 places where the soil has been loosened is good, and the removal 

 of the heather is sometimes beneficial to the woody plants. 

 Heather thrives on wet sour soil as well as on dry sand.I 



The present extensive development of heather in German 



* Advance-growth. — The seedling underwood springing-up in a high forest. 



t In the New Forest, about 14,500 bundles are sold per annum at l*-. a 100 

 bundles, 6 bundles being about as much as a man can conveniently carry. 

 Heather is also cut and sold in the Windsor Forest at Id a headload. 



+ To see heather iu perfection, the Laudes of Gascony should be visited, there 

 the shrubby heather [Erica arborea) grows vigorously with broom and other 

 species to a height of 6 to 8 feet above the surface, and greatly exposes the 

 Cluster pine-woods to conllagrations. 



