IN THE BEECHWOODS 137 



moister climate, even the most light-demanding 

 trees are not so emphatic in their demands for 

 light as in central Europe. Oak, elm, ash, 

 maple, and sycamore all bear a considerably 

 greater degree of shade here than in the interior 

 of the Continent. In many cases the three last- 

 named kinds of trees in general more valuable 

 than the beech should often, under suitable 

 management, be able to take over the role of 

 conserving the productivity of the soil by over- 

 shadowing it, and of protecting it against the dry- 

 ing and exhausting effects of sunshine and wind. 

 And there can be little doubt that, in most parts 

 of the British Isles, mixed crops of oak, elm, 

 ash, maple, and sycamore will be a sufficient 

 protection of the soil being assumed all the 

 more remunerative, the less the proportion of 

 beech introduced into them, except on soils of a 

 chalky or very limy nature. 



Even by itself, however, beech when grown in 

 pure woods can yield, no mean profit at the 

 present moment. This was shown recently in a 

 discussion on Forestry at the Surveyors' Institu- 

 tion, where an estate agent practising in the 

 Chiltern Hills district stated that well-managed 



