272 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 



of the soil all owing to interference with the 

 normal canopy of foliage required for the given 

 class of wood. It thus differs in toto from Agri- 

 culture. When large crops are taken from 

 arable land the soil has to be improved by 

 manuring ; whereas, in Forestry, the larger the 

 crops grown, the better is the land spontaneously 

 manured by the rich fall of dead leaves, and 

 the more thoroughly is the moisture in the 

 soil protected against loss by evaporation through 

 the exhausting effects of sun and wind. 



When once coppice or copse has been formed, 

 each rotation, in either case, may involve a cer- 

 tain amount of outlay in filling up blanks and 

 improving the crop ; while the regeneration of 

 highwoods is often coupled with a more consider- 

 able expenditure, which keeps growing at com- 

 pound interest until the woods yield a tangible 

 set-off in the way of thinnings. Notwithstand- 

 ing the drawback that they lock up a far larger 

 amount of capital in growing stock than is re- 

 quired for coppice or for copse, highwoods are 

 yet in the great majority of cases the most pro- 

 fitable kinds of woodland crops. Moreover, they 

 are the only possible form in which larch, pine 



