282 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 



larch, while it allows greater scope to the forester 

 in adapting his stock of standard trees to suit 

 the prospects of the market in the comparatively 

 near future. It is a system of management well 

 suited for the growth of light-demanding trees, 

 and especially of oak, ash, and larch ; while the 

 finest returns will be obtained on fresh soils in 

 sheltered situations, with light-crowned standards 

 and a dense underwood consisting of ash, syca- 

 more, maple, hazel, beech, &c., which reproduce 

 themselves freely, and are capable of bearing a 

 considerable amount of shade under such favour- 

 able conditions. 



In most British copses both the overwood and 

 the underwood show deviations to a greater or 

 less extent from the conditions desirable for 

 economic treatment. As regards the standards, 

 the trees, usually oak for the most part, run far 

 too much into branches, and the boles are defec- 

 tive, while many of them are over-mature, and 

 should have been felled long ago to make way 

 for a younger crop of more vigorous growth. 

 Again, the overwood is nothing like regularly 

 distributed over the falls, and there is no normal 

 gradation of ' age-classes ' throughout it. Then 



