70 THE NEW FORESTRY. 



Species. Elevation. 



Ash ^S feet, Yorkshire. 4,000 feet, Alps. 



Elm Ij5oo „ Derbyshire. 4,000 ,, Alps. 



Sweet Chestnut 2,800 ,, Alps. 



Sycamore 5>ooo ,, Alps. 



Alder 1,600 ,, Highlands. 4,000 ,, Alps. 



Birch 2,500 ,, Scotland. 5,000 ,, Alps. 



Poplar 1,600 ,, Yorkshire. 



Lime 2,800 ,, Tyrol. 



Hazel 1,900 „ Highlands. 



T ,. (Central 



Silver Fir 2,500 „ {Germany. 



Norway Spruce. .6, 000 ,, Alps. 3,000 „ Norway. 



Scotch Fir 2,200 ,, Britain. 6,000 ,, Alps. 



Austrian Fir 4,500 ,, Alps. 



Weymouth Pine 4,000 ,, Alps. 



Larch 2,000 ., Scotland. 3,000 to 6,000 ft., Alps. 



We know a good portion of the high-lying portions of 

 Yorkshire, Lancashire and Derbyshire, and Scotland, where 

 there are woods, and do not regard the above figures as ex- 

 tremes, if one may judge by the behaviour of such species as 

 the oak, ash, beech, chestnut, sycamore, birch, Scotch fir, spruce, 

 and others. If any of these species be found attaining to the 

 size of timber-trees at elevations approaching those given 

 in the foregoing table, they may be expected to succeed 

 higher up still in plantations. Take the oak, for example, which, 

 in the past, has not been regarded as a tree likely to succeed 

 either at a great elevation or in a poor soil. Yet, fifteen hundred 

 feet in England and thirteen hundred and fifty feet in 

 Scotland are the limits of its distribution, as regards 

 elevation, which may surprise some foresters ; but we 

 ourselves know of oak plantations at elevations over one 

 thousand feet in Yorkshire on the thinnest and poorest soils. 

 In 1887 we sold one hundred and seventeen trees, the last of 

 an old wood standing at this elevation, and the trees averaged 

 about sixty cubic feet each — the iargest reaching one hundred 

 and seventy feet. At the same elevation, or a little higher, 

 are younger plantations from forty to eighty years of age, of 

 oak, birch, larch, chestnut, beech, and sycamore, growing at a 

 fairly rapid rate, though the situation is north-east, or east, 

 and extremely expqsed. 



Of course, in speaking of trees at high elevations planta- 

 tions are meant, because these will succeed on the dense 

 principle, where single trees would never be much better than 

 scrub. The sycamore, although Brown recommends it to be 



