io 4 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 



advantageously be left to form a subsequent 

 chapter by itself. 



The growth of oak in highwoods may either be 

 pure or else in mixed crops along with other kinds 

 of trees. Pure woods of oak can only be grown 

 to the best advantage on soils that are fertile, 

 deep, and fresh. Where there is a tendency to 

 moistness in the soil, it is better to grow it along 

 with ash, elm, maple, and sycamore, or even with 

 alder, on land inclined to be marshy. On drier 

 land, especially where the soil is at all limy, oak 

 can best be grown along with beech, which pro- 

 tects and improves the soil, and keeps it as cool 

 and fresh as circumstances permit. 



Whether planted pure, or only in groups on 

 the better parts forming patches throughout a 

 matrix of beech or other kinds of hardwood trees, 

 the treatment of the oak is based on the ruling 

 principle that, as it is to form the ultimate crop 

 of timber to be harvested, it shall throughout all 

 the operations of tending and thinning receive 

 the chief consideration. Other species interfering 

 with its growth are to be removed in favour of it 

 whenever necessary, and individuals of its own 

 species must also be removed whenever they 



