40 PURE AND MIXED WOODS 



A modification of this system, when one species is planted 

 singly at some distance apart into a plantation of another 

 species, is, however, excellent in certain cases. For instance, 

 where larch is to be grown in places where it is liable to 

 disease, it is an excellent plan to plant it singly here and 

 there at about 20 feet apart into a plantation of another 

 species of which the best is beech. Each larch then grows 

 completely isolated from other larches. 



In the same way, ash, oak, elm, sycamore, poplars, and all 

 fast growing, light-demanding, broad-leaved trees may be 

 scattered singly in beech woods to increase the revenue, or in 

 woods of evergreen conifers, care being taken in the thinnings 

 to prevent the beech or evergreen conifer from topping the 

 single tree. It is perfectly useless to plant spruce, Douglas 

 fir, or any evergreen conifer singly into a wood of larch 

 or of a light-demanding, broad-leaved tree, as its branches 

 will not be naturally pruned and its timber will never be 

 of good quality. Such trees may, however, be mixed 

 singly into beech woods, as in this case the side branches will 

 die off. 



As the tree to be planted singly will usually be the most 

 valuable species, as many should be planted in the acre as 

 is possible. When it is one, like oak or ash, which is not very 

 liable to disease, it can be put in, say, at 13 feet apart, but 

 with larch 20 feet apart is safest. 



Mixtures in alternate lines may be made when the species 

 are of about the same height-growth or when the slow grower 

 will bear the shade thrown by the fast grower. The future 

 management of a wood arranged in this way is comparatively 

 easy and the slow grower does not get easily suppressed as 

 the light shines down the lines between the tops of the taller 

 species; but, on the other hand, if the fast grower forms cover 

 over the slow grower the advantages of isolation are lost. If 

 this is likely to be the case, as it usually is with larch and 

 beech, it is better to plant, say, three or four lines of the slow 



