HIGHWOODS, COPSES, ETC. 259 
often decidedly speculative in the case of larch, 
not being attributed to their true causes—to 
want of knowledge of the very simple scien- 
tific and economic principles upon which the 
art of Forestry is based. 
The main object of commercial Forestry is to 
obtain the largest and most profitable returns 
from the land in the shape of a regular yield 
sustained annually. Hence, as regards the 
amount of capital to be invested in the grow- 
ing stock of woodland crops, the principle is 
that (subject of course to yielding produce of 
the dimensions required for the available market) 
it shall be neither more nor less than is requisite 
to produce the best regular income from the 
land under wood. With regard to coppices, the 
capital which can most suitably be arranged for 
is that which permits of the fall being made 
in the shortest possible rotation without ex- 
posing the soil to the danger of deterioration 
from sun and wind through being repeatedly 
laid bare by too frequent harvesting of the crop. 
In highwoods, however, the capital locked up 
in the growing stock, which is much larger than 
that required for copse or for coppice, will be 
