94 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 
been customary in Britain that the natural habit 
of this fine timber tree towards branch forma- 
tion, and more especially the somewhat more 
spreading tendency of the English or pedunculate 
oak, as compared with the Durmast or sessile 
oak, can be controlled so as to direct its energy 
in growth towards the formation of a long clean 
bole, free from thick branches causing knots 
that would ultimately form weak spots in beams 
and scantlings of timber. And it is equally 
certain that this long, strong class of stem is 
what will now fetch the highest price in the 
timber market, because it yields the strongest 
and best wood required for technical purposes. 
Even more than 300 years ago it was recog- 
nised that branching growth unfitted the oak 
for certain purposes; and Holinshed speaks of 
‘most of the wainescot that is brought hither 
out of Danske, for our wainescot is not made 
in England.’ 
Following the change in the market require- 
ments there must of course, in the case of all 
woods grown mainly for. profit, be a correspond- 
ing change in the method of growing wood to 
supply these new demands. This is now being 
