62 ELEMENTS OF SYLVICULTURE. 



forest for its own sake, but it becomes most useful 

 when associated with the oak. It was formerly 

 destroyed, as being no better than the soft woods, 

 and this mistake was perpetuated for centuries, so 

 now it is being protected or reintroduced in the 

 very same localities where war to the knife was 

 once waged against it. Like all the large trees, it 

 should be utilised wherever it grows naturally, and 

 not unfrequently indeed it has to play rather an 

 important part. 



Except as regards the market, the hornbeam 

 considered as a companion for oak, offers the same 

 advantages as the beech ; it flourishes even in very 

 moist soils, where the beech ceases to grow, and 

 thus becomes the natural ally of the peduncled oak. 



From a purely cultural point of view the hornbeam 

 is superior to the beech, inasmuch as it always 

 grows slower, and remains smaller than the oak, but 

 its longevity barely exceeds a century and a half. 

 Still that is no reason for excluding it from oak 

 forests, and although it is chiefly a question of a far 

 distant future we shall see further on that this 

 difficulty is more apparent than real. 



In a good many localities the oak is mixed some- 

 times either with the beech or hornbeam, at other 

 times with both together. This latter condition is 

 most advantageous as it guarantees a quicker and 

 more complete regeneration, and facilitates the 

 operation of thinning in the interests of the oak ; it 

 would thus be a great mistake to get rid of the 

 hornbeam on the plea of its being less useful. 



The hornbeam is not one of our loftiest trees, it is 



