BAD MIXTURES . 105 



mixture ; especially the two former. Ultimately the Corsican 

 will be outgrown, and pure Weymouth Pine can be left, or 

 Weymouth Pine and Scots Pine. 



Douglas Fir and Sitka Spruce make a good mixture, 

 but at present a very expensive one. 



Douglas Fir and Thuya gigantea will often be a good 

 mixture ; the latter will ultimately be outgrown in most 

 cases. 



Poplars and Japanese Larch, or Tree Willows and 

 Japanese Larch, may be grown together, provided the Larch, 

 which are grown merely to afford valuable thinnings, do not 

 form more than half the crop. The Larch will soon be 

 outgrown, and must be removed as thinnings ; and artificial 

 pruning will probably be necessary. Underplanting with 

 Douglas Fir or Sitka Spruce or other trees should then often 

 be adopted ; and these will ultimately form a coniferous crop 

 after the Poplars or Tree Willows are mature. 



Poplars or Tree Willows with Alder make an excellent 

 mixture; but the Alder must be treated as coppice on 

 (about) a 25-year rotation. 



Bad and Inferior Mixtures. 



As already indicated, the broad-leaved trees should 

 seldom, if ever, be alternately mixed with the evergreen 

 conifers. For the latter will, all of them, be coarse and 

 inferior, and in many cases the broad-leaved trees also will 

 be coarse and branchy, as when mixed with very slow-grow- 

 ing conifers, as, for instance, Ash and Silver Fir. But even 

 if the broad-leaved trees be well pruned, the large number 

 of inferior conifers will render the mixture inadvisable. 



Hence all such mixtures as Oak with the Pines or Spruce, 

 or Silver Fir, or Douglas Fir, are very objectionable ; so also 

 are mixtures of Ash with these trees, etc. In most cases, 

 also, the Oak will be outgrown. 



Oak and Larch is objectionable, because the Oak will 

 soon be outgrown, and will also be unpruned. 



Oak and Ash is not good ; for the Ash will soon outgrow 

 the Oak, and neither will be Well pruned. 



