IN THE BEECHWOODS 137 
moister climate, even the most light-demanding 
trees are not so emphatic in their demands for 
light as in central Europe. Oak, elm, ash, 
maple, and sycamore all bear a_ considerably 
greater degree of shade here than in the interior 
of the Continent. In many cases the three last- 
named kinds of trees—in general more valuable 
than the beech—should often, under suitable 
management, be able to take over the rdle of 
conserving the productivity of the soil by over- 
shadowing it, and of protecting it against the dry- 
ing and exhausting effects of sunshine and wind. 
And there can be little doubt that, in most parts 
of the British Isles, mixed crops of oak, elm, 
ash, maple, and sycamore will be—a sufficient 
protection of the soil being assumed—all the 
more remunerative, the less the proportion of 
beech introduced into them, except on soils of a 
chalky or very limy nature. 
Even by itself, however, beech when grown in 
pure woods can yield no mean profit at the 
present moment. This was shown recently in a 
discussion on Forestry at the Surveyors’ Institu- 
tion, where an estate agent practising in the 
Chiltern Hills district stated that well-managed 
