THE NEW FORESTRY. 83 



wood, it should in any case be remembered that the common 

 Norway spruce, silver spruce, Scotch fir, Corsican fir, and larch 

 are proved timber-trees — the three first supplying most of the 

 pine timber used everywhere, and in any mixture ,of the 

 conifera they should predominate. 



SECTION IV. — MIXTURES OF BROAD-LEAVED SPECIES. 



The different species of this family that grow almost as 

 evenly together as by themselves, and are therefore suitable 

 for mixed plantations, are the oak, ash, elm, sycamore, cherry, 

 and lime. They do not all increase equally in bulk of trunk, 

 but when judiciously mixed they do not smother each other, 

 and the same soil and conditions suit them all. The species 

 unsuitable for a mixed plantation are the poplar, willow, beech, 

 Spanish chestnut, birch, and alder. The two first prefer a wet 

 soil, and the poplar overtops all other species in a destructive 

 fashion. The two should .therefore go together, the poplar 

 being planted thickly and under-planted with the willow. 

 The beech is a bad tree in a mixed wood owing to its great 

 shade-bearing power, which enables it to retain its lower 

 branches which push out and usurp the surrounding' space, 

 smothering everything near it. This is the reason why beech 

 trees in mixed woods are usually found full of limbs and occu- 

 pying so much space. Grown by itself, or with its equals, 

 like the Spanish chestnut, for example, it behaves differently, 

 producing a tall, cylindrical trunk of fine timber. The birch 

 may be planted in mixed woods, where it will keep 

 pace in height-growth with the other species till well 

 past middle-age, but the trunks are usually small. Planted 

 with the oak alone it is seen at its best, and the oak 

 does well with it, and both may be planted thickly. The 

 French also recommend the birch as a companion to the 

 oak. Referring to the beech again, it may be used for under- 

 planting in mixed woods with every prospect of it growing 

 well and of the right shape, always provided that it is planted 

 after the general crop has got well-established and grown up 

 to a good height. The beech has not hitherto been nearly 

 so much used as an underwood as it might have been. We 

 have seen it sixty feet high under the deep shade of a spruce 

 forest in the Hartz Mountains, and in numerous cases in this 

 country found it growing well under the shade of other trees 

 where no other broad-leaved species would have long survived, 

 except the hornbeam and horse chestnut. 



