CHAPTER I. 



i " '*" 



OUTLINES OF THE HISTORY AND THE SCIENTIFIC FOUNDATIONS 

 OF BRITISH FORESTRY; OUR TIMBER - TREES, AND THEIR 



SYLVICULTURAL CHARACTERISTICS ; AND THE DIFFERENT 

 FORMS OF WOODLAND CROPS. 



Sylviculture is that one of the four main branches of modern 

 Forestry which deals with the formation, tending, and renewal 

 of woodland crops, in order to grow timber in the manner most 

 profitable to the landowner. In this branch one has first to 

 consider the different kinds of trees and their special peculiar- 

 ities and general characteristics, and the different methods in 

 which they can be treated as woodland crops, before one can 

 give detailed consideration to the various stages in their growth 

 and development (1) the sowing or planting of new woods, (2) 

 the weeding and thinning needed in tending young woods and 

 plantations and those of older age, and (3) the renewal of 

 mature wood -crops, either by reproduction through stool-shoots 

 and root-suckers, or by regeneration through seed shed naturally 

 or sown artificially. 



Our Woodland Trees. The timber-crops which can be grown 

 in the British Isles comprise, owing to our mild, equable, damp 

 climate, a very large number of different kinds of trees for so 

 comparatively small an area. The indigenous trees which can 

 be profitably grown as timber-crops are very limited in number, 

 and include Beech, Hornbeam, Alder, Ash, Oak, Scots Elm, 

 Aspen, Birch, White Willow, and among conifers only the 



