208 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 
dominant trees, and 95 dominated stems that will 
have to be removed during the next few years. 
The average height of the dominant trees is 75 
feet, and the largest of these girths seven feet at 
five feet above the ground, though, of course, 
there is considerable diversity in the size of the 
trees. As the crop now stands on the ground 
the dominant trees are estimated to contain 25 
cubic feet each, or 38,375 cubic feet worth gd.. 
a foot (41439, 1s. 3d.), and the dominated trees 
44 cubic feet each, or 4274 cubic feet worth 8d. 
a foot (£414, §s.), i.e. £1553, 6s. 3d. or £194 
an acre for the total crop. The thinnings of 1887 
sold for £34, and the only expenditure since 
then has been £17 for pruning which might 
have been unnecessary but for the fact that the 
plantation was originally made at the wide dis- 
tance of 6 feet by 6 feet. Fast as the growth of 
larch often is, it never attains so large an average 
annual increase as this represents. 
The four genera of abietinous conifers which 
seem most likely to form profitable woodland 
crops in Britain, differ greatly among themselves 
as regards their natural requirements and their 
specific habits of growth. Larch (L. europea), 
