AMONG THE OAKS 105 
interfere with the continuous good development 
of those stems which, subject to gradual elimina- 
tion of the weaker or rather inferior specimens, 
will, in due course of time, form the mature 
harvest of timber to be reaped. 
Oak timber grown in this manner may gene- 
rally be expected to attain maturity at about one 
hundred and fifty to two hundred years of age, 
although reliable data are not yet available to 
indicate anything like definitely what rotation of 
oak in highwoods will prove most remunerative. 
Such data are still exceedingly difficult to obtain 
in Britain; and, at best, they depend so much on 
local circumstances—as to market demand, com- 
munications and transport, soil and situation, and 
the like—that it would perhaps be somewhat rash 
to formulate any sort of general dictum about 
such a matter as the most profitable age to fell 
timber in highwoods. 
All throughout the first half of this period, 
when the young woods are passing through the 
thicket and the pole stages of growth, till the 
young trees have been drawn up to near the 
total height they can attain on the given soil 
and situation, the cleanings and weedings and 
