COMPOSITION OF FORESTS GEOWK EXCLUSIVELY FOE THE MABKET. 119 



under Advantage VII, p. 113, a mixture of species diminishes the 

 chances and the destructiveness of forest conflagrations. 



(v) The forest must be rendered as safe as possible against storms, 

 fires, insects, hide-binding, snow and other causes of destruction or 

 malformation of the trees. It has already been explained under Ad- 

 vantage VII, p. Ill, that this end is better secured in a mixed than 

 in a pure crop. 



(vi) Besides wood, the forest should also yield fodder, fruit, and 

 other minor produce, which would generally be furnished in great- 

 est abundance by a mixed growth, as shown under Advantage VI, 

 page 112. 



In order to secure, besides the maximum production, also the 

 most useful produce of which the soil and climate combined are 

 capable, the following additional conditions must exist simultaneous- 

 ly with all the preceding: 



(vii) The forest should be composed only of marketable species, 

 the largest proportion possible, if the forest is mixed, being assigned 

 to the most valuable (principal) species, consistent ivith the realisation 

 of all the other conditions. The necessity of this condition is ob- 

 vious. The question of purity or mixture will depend exclusively 

 on extraneous circumstances, such as the adaptability of the soil for 

 one or more species, the limitation of the demand to a single spe- 

 cies or not, &c. 



(viii) The forest should, if possible, consist of a mixture of 

 species. Mixed forests yield more varied and, therefore, more 

 widely useful produce. Different industries require different de- 

 scriptions of wood and other forest products, and our aim ought to 

 be to satisfy all present and possible future requirements with the 

 least amount of delay, inconvenience and expense to the State and 

 to the people, and of departmental disorganisation and sudden dis- 

 location of routine. A judicious mixture of species, whenever it 

 is feasible, is the surest means to this end. 



(ix) The trees should, unless curved timber were specially re- 

 quired, be as long and as straight and clean-boled as possible. This 

 end is generally best attained by a mixture of species whereby, as 

 explained under Advantages II and III, pp. 109-110, the closer 

 and more vigorous growth results in the formation of long, well- 

 shaped and straight-fibred timber. 



(x) The icood produced should be as sound as possible. In the 

 discussion of Advantage VII, p. 112, we have already seen that in 

 order to secure this object a mixture of species is, in nearly every 

 case, to be preferred. 



