84 NOTES ON FORESTRY. 



The reserved stems, on being left standing alone, 

 immediately send out strong lateral branches; 

 they never rise to the height desirable in timber 

 trees ; and at any subsequent period of growth 

 they are found occupying more ground space than 

 would be occupied by a tree of equal cubic con- 

 tents in a timber forest. After a few rotations 

 there is a very marked depreciation in yield of 

 coppice wood, while the forest, regarded as a 

 timber forest, is in a hopelessly unsatisfactory 

 condition. 



I visited many Mittelroald forests in Germany, 

 and found them very instructive as indicating 

 what to avoid; but they were mostly private forests, 

 and the forest officers with whom I visited them 

 generally agreed with me that their unsatisfactory 

 state was mainly due to leaving more stems at 

 every felling than was consistent with the ideal 

 theory of a mixed forest. 



The cubic contents of each felling were generally 

 on a par with the yield of pure coppice, and the 

 money value somewhat higher ; and although the 

 system has been almost entirely discarded in State 

 forests, I am not quite sure that it might not be 

 advantageously introduced into our coppice planta- 

 tions, provided we keep in view the maintenance 

 of the coppice yield, and do not leave too many 

 stems for timber. 



