MIXED WOODS. 45 



fox-preserves. When once simple or stored coppice has been 

 formed, each rotation of 10 or 12 to 20 or 25 years involves 

 only a small outlay in filling blanks, whereas the capital sunk 

 in highwood crops grows at compound interest and increases 

 rapidly, unless there be good thinnings. 



Throughout the forests of Continental Europe during the last 

 hundred years or more the artificial growth of pure woods of 

 several kinds of trees (especially Conifers, the most profitable 

 timber-crops) has been greatly encouraged. But in place of 

 this leading to the profit expected, it has only too often led to 

 greatly increased damage and loss of money through insect 

 attacks, fungus diseases, windfall, snowbreak, &c. This has 

 especially been the case with Spruce in Germany, where pure 

 Spruce woods grown at sixty years' rotation on a fresh soil and 

 in a damp climate were reckoned to be the most profitable form 

 of timber -crop. So now the formation of mixed woods is 

 far more in favour than thirty or forty years ago, and endeavours 

 are being made to provide for good mixed woods in the future. 

 But the production of Oak, Ash, Elm, Maple, and Sycamore, 

 and also Larch, has always been most satisfactory in mixed 

 woods of broad-leaved trees, and especially when the chief 

 species is Beech, whose thick fall of dead foliage rich in potash 

 forms the best leaf-mould. The advantages of mixed woods 

 are (1) a thick crop protecting the soil; (2) the production of 

 larger and finer timber; (3) diminished danger of windfall, 

 snowbreak, insects, and diseases ; (4) easier natural regeneration ; 

 (5) easier introduction of changes affected by market demand, 

 and (6) greater picturesqueness and diversity in foliage tints ; 

 while the only objection is that they need more careful tending. 



The main points to be observed in forming mixed woods are 

 that the soil and situation should (1) be such as will suit the 

 kinds of trees intended to be mixed ; (2) that the mixed crops 

 should be such as can adequately protect the productivity by 

 guarding the soil against loss of moisture through sunshine and 



