52 ELEMENTS OF SYLVICULTUEE. 



to become long and deep at first, soon presents lateral 

 ramifications, and at what is yet an early age, the 

 roots all run along close to the surface of the ground. 

 The beech sends up no suckers, and in some locali- 

 ties shoots up indifferently from the stool. 



The rate of growth, rather slow at the start, is 

 however a little bit quicker than that of the oak, but 

 it is worthy of remark that under a complete canopy, 

 though this be lofty, beech seedlings will cease grow- 

 ing when they are about three feet in height, and in this 

 state they will live on for an indefinite period, still 

 retaining the faculty of shooting up when the supply 

 of light is increased ; later on, oak and beech go 

 ahead at about the same pace. The beech is a tree 

 of great height, but is shorter lived than the oak, 

 and does not attain as large a girth. The quality of 

 its timber is not proportional to the rapidity of 

 growth,* and the sapw^ood is similar to and may 

 serve the same purposes as the heart-wood. 



USES. Beechwood warps easily, and decays 



* For broad-leaved trees the general rule on this point is as 

 follows : In each annual ring of wood, the pores (vessels) are, first, 

 either equally distributed ; or, secondly, congregated nearly all 

 together along the interior edge of each ring, and are wanting, or 

 very small and scattered, towards the exterior edge. 



In the latter case, the inner portion of each ring, which is formed 

 in spring, and is hence termed " spring-wood," is light and porous, 

 whereas the outer portion produced in autumn and called "autumn- 

 wood," is composed of compact woody tissue. Now it is found that 

 for the same conditions of soil and climate, the thickness of the 

 porous or spring- wood is uniform, i.e., remains constant, and any 

 increased rapidity of growth tells only on the autumn wood. Hence 

 in this case which includes such trees as the oak, ash, &c., the more 

 rapid the growth, the greater the proportion of compact woody tissue 

 the tree will contain, and the heavier will be its timber. 



