32 ENGLISH ESTATE FORESTRY 



of years of more or less uninterrupted growth. Of course 

 such results are not always due to an attempt to render the 

 wood ornamental, but are quite as often due to mistaken 

 sylvicultural notions. But, as a general rule, the old- 

 fashioned idea regarding an ornamental tree is responsible 

 for a great deal of coarse timber, and a good many of the 

 unsightly woods which exist at the present day, and which 

 render a woodland landscape about as picturesque as a field 

 of cabbages. 



The final result of this mixture of sylviculiure and 

 arboriculture is sometimes good, sometimes bad, and in 

 most cases indifferent. It is usually good, outside the 

 forester's point of view, where a definite aim has been kept 

 in view for a number of years, and work has been carried 

 out on principles generally recognised as correct when 

 applied to a particular object or branch of work. It is 

 invariably bad where no definite aim is kept in view, but 

 the management based more or less on lines which fluctuate 

 from year to year, and the work carried out on wrongly 

 applied principles. The prevailing indifferent result is the 

 outcome of a mixture of both of these systems, and usually 

 exists where the management of the work is split up 

 between two or three individuals. 



Good results, as already said, are the outcome of a 

 definite aim being kept in view, and will usually be found 

 on estates where a succession of competent foresters have 

 been employed, and the woods left practically in their charge. 

 In such cases, which are unfortunately few and far between, 

 woods are intelligently planted with the right species for the 

 soil and situation, they are regularly and properly thinned, 

 and when ripe are felled and placed on the market by a man 

 who knows something about the state of the timber trade, 

 and the total cubic contents of the timber he is selling. 

 While the production of timber is the main object in view, 

 the forester in charge of such woods studies their ornamental 

 features to some extent, as well as their value as game 

 preserves. Ornamental trees and shrubs are planted in 

 suitable situations, and attended to when necessary. The 

 wants of the gamekeeper are met at least expense to the 

 proprietor, and without that utter disregard of the suitability 



