48 EXPLOITATION OF PLANTS 
not less than 100 trees to the acre. In actual fact a 
large majority of the oakwoods in the southern part 
of England have less than 30 trees to the acre at 
maturity. 
Open Canopy and Game Preservation —We have seen 
that the historical factor has played a large part in 
determining the open character of our woodlands, but 
another practice; and one far more difficult to remedy, 
is the influence of sport. 
A high forest properly stocked usually exhibits a very 
sparse shrub layer and scarcely any herbaceous flora. 
Such woods, therefore, present very poor cover for 
ground game and pheasants, so that financial success is 
all too frequently sacrificed to the demands of pleasure. 
The widespread character of coppice with standards is 
probably due to the fact that it constituted a compromise 
between the diétates of forestry and those of sport. 
Under modern conditions, however, this system 
rarely produces satisfactory financial results. An ex- 
ception to this generalisation must be made where the 
coppice supplies the demands of some local industry, 
as, for example, around Haselmere, where the chestnut 
coppice is utilised for fencing, and realises from £6 to 
£18 per acre in a fifteen years’ rotation. 
Much might be done towards reconciliation of the 
forester and gamekeeper by suitable underplanting with 
covert shrubs, such as yew, box, laurel, etc. The use 
of Rhododendron for this purpose in the past has, per- 
haps, brought the system into disrepute. For where 
the soil is suited to this plant it often exhibits such 
luxuriant growth and seeds so freely as to constitute 
an impassable barrier to the beaters. 
