272 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 
of the soil—all owing to interference with the 
normal canopy of foliage required for the given 
class of wood. It thus differs in toto from Agri- 
culture. When large crops are taken from 
arable land the soil has to be improved by 
manuring ; whereas, in Forestry, the larger the 
crops grown, the better is the land spontaneously 
manured by the rich fall of dead leaves, and 
the more thoroughly is the moisture in the 
soil protected against loss by evaporation through 
the exhausting effects of sun and wind. 
When once coppice or copse has been formed, 
each rotation, in either case, may involve a cer- 
tain amount of outlay in filling up blanks and 
improving the crop; while the regeneration of 
highwoods is often coupled with a more consider- 
able expenditure, which keeps growing at com- 
pound interest until the woods yield a tangible 
set-off in the way of thinnings. Notwithstand- 
ing the drawback that they lock up a far larger 
amount of capital in growing stock than is re- 
quired for coppice or for copse, highwoods are 
yet in the great majority of cases the most pro- 
fitable kinds of woodland crops. Moreover, they 
are the only possible form in which larch, pine 
