THE NEW FORESTRY. 1 47 



of the dominant trees meeting over the tops of the 

 weaker ones which succumb, leaving no gap in the 

 leafy roof which shuts out the light from above, causing 

 that deep gloom underneath that always gives a dense 

 forest its sombre aspect. The effect of these conditions are 

 that the trees are drawn up more quickly in height than would 

 be the case were they distributed thinly over the ground and 

 had more light and room. The lower branches die off at an 

 early stage, leaving the trunk clean and free from knots, 

 straight and of a nearly uniform girth from end to end, 

 compared to trees which have room to develop their side 

 branches down to the ground. A very large proportion of 

 the timber imported into this country from abroad comes from 

 natural forests and is of this description. Whether it consists 

 of poles or, logs its general character is the same, the conditions 

 of growth being the same in all regions and the results similar. 

 Such is nature's method of producing timber, and all that 

 man can do to assist nature is to step in and shorten the struggle 

 at the beginning by sowing or planting more thinly and 

 regulating the crop afterwards, according to the species, so as 

 to secure the best results in the shape of a crop of timber. 

 What strikes the observer in a natural forest is the density 

 of the crop, the height of the trees, their freedom from 

 branches, their straightness and cylindrical shape of stem, all 

 qualities of the highest value in timber trees, which it should 

 be the aim of the forester to secure, and which he can secure 

 by the same means as nature employs if he chooses to use them. 

 The forest tree of nature is moulded into shape by external 

 agencies now recognised in scientific forestry, reduced to 

 practice and called " Sylviculture," that is to say the cultivation 

 of woods or forests as distinguished from " Arboriculture " or 

 the culture of trees, two very different things long confounded. 

 To a large extent the Germans regulate their thinning opera- 

 tions by the shade-enduring power of the different species, a 

 hitherto unrecognised factor in British forestry, but to which 

 much importance is ■, attached on the Continent. The greater 

 the shade-enduring power of any species, the greater the 

 density of crop may be, the greater the number of trees 

 to the acre and the greater the number of cubic feet. German 

 authorities, indeed, profess to give the shade-enduring power, 

 or " light requirement " of most species, but for all practical 

 purposes the forest trees requiring special notice'in this respect 

 may be divided into four classes, viz., the beech and hornbeam, 

 as compared with the oak and ash, etc. ; and the spruces as 



