rotation and the number of age-classes formed by the standards, but also the number of standards of each age-class retained as overwood. Hence any approximately correct estimate of the capital in wood in copse can only be made by local measurements or estimates of the growing-stock. As trees of all ages are grown together under the casual or so-called "selection" system, it has been suggested that the normal capital might be estimated at one-half of the full amount of a mature crop. Considering the actual conditions of growth of the younger classes under the heavy shade of the older trees, however, this method can be of but little practical value.

The normal increment or rate of growth fully proportionate to the fertility of the given soil and situation is the sum of the increment accruing throughout all the crops of different ages during the course of each year, and it is equal to the yield of the oldest annual fall in which is incorporated all the annual increments on such unit of area. Expressed as a percentage of the capital, it varies proportionately to the capital in wood. Thus, in the examples previously given on p. 228, it is 2 per cent in the 80 years' rotation and 2 per cent in that of 100 years.

The normal condition can never be fully attained in practice. Even if it could in some cases be almost achieved, it would be impossible to maintain it for any length of time owing to the disturbances to which it is always liable from organic and inorganic causes. But constant and close consideration of the normal condition has more than a mere theoretical value, because it is of really great practical use as a basis-a general standard-for all the estimates and calculations required in order to arrange for woodland management with regularity and economy. It is the only practical means by which full attention can be given to the fundamental fact that each series of timber-crops requires a specific capital in wood for the proper utilisation of the soil in the production of timber. Whether the woods be worked as highwoods, copse, or coppice is immaterial. Each of these sylvicultural systems requires, in addition to the soil, a definite capital in wood in order that the productive power of the land be utilised to its full capacity. If the timber-crops be too thin, whether through wide planting or excessive thinning, then the productivity of the soil cannot be fully utilised, while at the same time it is exposed to deterioration through sun and wind. But if judicious thinning be neglected, so that the crops stand too thick, then they are apt to be weakly in growth through overcrowding; and here again the land is not utilised economically, judging by the practical standard of its capacity for producing wood of the best marketable quality and in the largest possible quantity.

3. Choice of the Sylvicultural Treatment (Highwoods, Coppice and Copse).-Highwoods produce the largest returns and the most valuable wood, while they are also best able to protect the soil against the deteriorating influences of sun and wind. If formed with a suitable number of plants per acre and kept in close cover, without being over-thinned, the trees grow up in such a way as to attain the greatest height and produce the largest basal area for the stems forming the crop; while the harvesting of the mature timber only, as a rule, takes place after the average increment has culminated and the trees are of large dimensions. Where grazing is combined with wood production, that can be carried on continuously with much less damage than would be possible in coppice or copse. But highwoods require a large area and a large capital in timber for their proper management, and the returns are not always what one might desire from so large an investment, especially if the woods are worked with a high rotation. No absolute comparison can,

however, be made between highwoods, copse, and coppice with regard to the profit they yield, because so much depends in each case on the available local market, the kind of wood grown, and the rotation with which the woods are worked. All that can be safely said is that though they lock up a far larger capital in the woods than copse or coppice, yet, in the great majority of cases, and especially where the poorer classes of land are in question, highwoods (and conifers in particular) are, on the whole, the most profitable woodland crops where a large capital is available for investment. Moreover, they are the only form in which Pine, Larch, and Firs can be grown; and these are, for many parts of Britain, the crops whose cultivation on a large scale will prove most profitable.

The simplest form of highwood is that in which the whole area is regularly divided into annual falls, of which the oldest is clear-felled every year, and reproduced artificially by sowing or planting. This is the method usually obtaining with regard to crops of Larch, Pine, and Firs. Another system, generally employed with regard to Beech-woods (also Silver Fir on the Continent), is to group several annual falls together, so as to form a periodic fall, as already described, and to clear the mature timber gradually from the area, whilst a young crop is being regenerated naturally from seed. Modifications of this system of natural regeneration under parent standards are to be found in recent developments of forestry, in which selected stems among the old trees are retained for a further series of years, or even for the whole of the next period of rotation, in order to attain specially large and valuable dimensions. The same object can also be attained by making rather heavy thinnings or partial clearances, when natural regeneration is about to begin, so that the individual trees acquire the free, almost isolated, position most favourable to rapid growth in girth. This of course causes well-grown trees to increase rapidly in value, but the operation usually increases the cost of regeneration, and often leads to the soil becoming overrun with weeds, so that it is not in all cases certain to be a profitable measure. Retention of selected trees for a second rotation is usually a questionable matter, as the trees are seldom likely to hold out the full rotation with advantage, and for a long time they meanwhile retard the younger crop by overshadowing it more or less heavily.

In the case of woods treated by casual or sporadic (selection) fellings, the various age-classes are scattered singly or in groups all over the area in place of being contained within annual or periodic falls, and this system can only be adopted when one has to deal with a shade-bearing kind of tree (such as Beech) in Southern England, or Douglas Fir or Spruce in the North of Scotland. Even then it is generally employed either for æsthetic reasons or for protective purposes (as on high hills), so that the consideration of this system hardly falls within the scope of commercial forestry. It need only, perhaps, be remarked that although in some cases the total increment in woods worked by this casual method is more than that in highwoods with regular annual or periodic falls, yet the mature trees are more branching, and have therefore less technical or monetary value than stems grown in close canopy.

Coppice, consisting of stool-shoots and suckers thrown out when the crop is cleared every few years, yields, on the whole, a smaller return in wood than highwoods; but it requires a very much smaller capital in growing-stock, and, worked with a low rotation, gives a comparatively large area for each year's fall. Hence it offers considerable attractions for the working of small

woodland areas. This system can, however, only be carried on to any considerable extent with profit where there happens to be a good market for small produce. So long as Oak-bark was well paid, coppices worked with a rotation of about 14 to 16 years yielded higher returns than highwoods or copse, while some of the Osier-holts in the fen country bring in a larger profit than ever the Oak-coppices did. But the cultivation of basket-willows is much more like gardening than ordinary woodland operations. Wherever there is any steady market for charcoal for gunpowder, Alder-coppice may also prove very profitable on marshy land when worked with a rotation of 20 to 30 years. It then closely resembles highwoods in habit of growth and other respects, save only in being reproduced by coppicing in place of by natural regeneration, sowing, or planting.

The permanent maintenance of coppice is dependent on good reproductive capacity in the kinds of wood grown, and on a fairly good soil and situation. The bulk of the crops usually consists of species like Oak, Chestnut, Hazel, Ash, Maple, Sycamore, and such like, with Alder, Willows, Poplars, and Birch on the moister parts. Particular care should be given to see that stools are replaced whenever they begin to flag in reproductive vigour, else the returns soon diminish considerably and unproductive blanks are formed. Where several kinds of trees are grown together it is often difficult to fix on the best rotation. Thus, for example, Hazel is often most profitable at 7 or 8 years old, but Ash only at about 14 or 15 years of age. To try a compromise by a rotation of 10 or 11 years suits neither part of the crop, while at the same time this cannot be worked simultaneously at 7 years for Hazel and 14 for Ash. Here the main portion of the crop obviously demands the chief consideration, unless the area can be broken up into two separate working-circles-one for Hazel with 7 years' rotation, and the other for Ash with 14 years.

Copse, also called Stored Coppice or Coppice with Standards, is a sort of mixture of highwood and coppice, in such a manner that while the coppice, forming the underwood, determines the rotation over the area, yet the fall will at the same time harvest a portion of the overwood consisting of standards of various age-classes, differing from each other in age by the number of years in the rotation.

For the continuous thriving of copse a good fresh soil is necessary, else the underwood cannot grow well under the shade cast by the overwood. Softwoods then find their way in, displacing the more valuable hardwoods, blanks are apt to form, weeds spring up, and then, unless constant attention is given to the cutting out of these and the replacement of worn-out stools, the soil becomes deteriorated on the surface. When deterioration has really been allowed to go on for several years, as is very frequently indeed the case in many British copses, it would often be more profitable to change the system of treatment entirely and plant a conifer crop, which will both be more profitable in itself and will improve the soil considerably.

The returns yielded by copse are usually below those obtained from highwoods grown on a similar class of soil. But this form of management certainly has often the attraction of still yielding a very fair return, while requiring only a comparatively small capital in wood to be locked up as the growing-stock; for, of course, its low rotation enables large annual falls to be made. It is therefore essentially the system of management for landowners having only 200 or 300

acres of woods, because it can yield small annual supplies of timber of various sizes at each time of felling the underwood-small value though this now has.

For Britain, and especially for England, copse has other special attractions. The English law of entail makes an important difference between highwood (saltus) or timber, and copse or coppice (sylva cædua).1 The former is considered part of the estate, and money arising from the sale of it is treated as capital on which the owner in possession can only receive the interest, while the latter can be cut in the ordinary course of estate management for the benefit of the lifetenant. Under Scots law, however, an heir in possession can cut timber so long as his possession lasts (see vol. i. p. 58).

Copses have also the additional advantage of being better suited for covertshooting and sport generally than any other kind of woodland. This great point in their favour, as well as their beauty in the landscape, will always deserve and receive the favourable consideration of most English landowners. Further, this system is also one of the best ways of growing as overwood the most valuable kinds of timber on a small scale. It is true that standards over coppice have always a larger proportion of branchwood than the clean stems of well-grown highwoods, yet copse is (with a little judicious pruning) not at all a bad way of growing large and valuable Oak, Ash, and Larch, while it enables the forester to select his young standards (stores or tellers) to suit the probable future market.

If the timber on an estate is to be looked to, as will sometimes be the case, as the source whence the present heavy succession duties are to be partially defrayed, then copse is perhaps that system of management which can most easily be made to yield-within moderate limits, of course-an abnormally heavy fall of timber without producing great disturbance in the general working and ornamental appearance of the woodlands on an estate. But such a measure will necessarily, as also in the case of highwoods, cause short returns for many years, till the capital thus utilised is replaced in course of time.

4. Selection of Kind of Trees to be grown as Timber - Crops.— Although actuarial calculations with proper data can alone determine exactly in what degree one method of sylvicultural treatment and one special kind of crop may be more advantageous than any other given method or crop, or what rotation may prove most remunerative in each particular case, yet such intricate details are really quite unnecessary in order to arrive at an opinion as to what is likely to prove the best sort of crop for any given soil and situation. Subject to such modifications and mixtures as local market considerations will of course suggest, poor sandy soil is naturally best suited for crops of Pines as the chief species, with Larch, Firs, Birch, &c., in admixture; on lime and chalk Beech will preferably be selected (except when deterioration of the soil renders Austrian Pine advisable for one rotation), with Ash, Maple, and Sycamore, &c., scattered throughout it; on loam and clay, Oak and other hardwoods can best be grown in such mixed crops as are likely to be most remunerative locally; while on marshy tracts and swamp lands, Alder, Willows, and Poplars will at once suggest themselves, unless the land can be drained and made to yield higher returns either agriculturally or under other woodland crops.

1 The ancient term used in the law of England for all manner of woodlands was Boscus; but highwood was properly called Saltus, while coppices or copsewoods under 20 years' growth were termed Sylva cædua (see articles Boscus and Sylva cædua in Cowell's Law Dictionary, 1708).

On many of the chalk-hills forming the backbone of Southern England-the Chilterns and Cotswolds, and the spurs branching off from them-Beech-woods, the scattered remnants of ancient forests, form the bulk of the woodland crops. They often prove very profitable, yielding a steady annual income of 30s. an acre, although growing on land situated on the tops of hills unsuited for agriculture, and certainly not worth more than 5s. an acre if brought under pasturage. Regenerated naturally without much assistance (often, indeed, without any at all) in the way of artificial sowing and planting, these Beech-woods are grown pure, and are often far from being as fully stocked as they might be. No doubt they would prove much more profitable if natural regeneration were judiciously assisted by soil-preparation to a greater extent than is at present the case, and completed by sowing and planting; while it is certain that the remunerativeness of woods of this class could be raised by sprinkling Ash in particular, also Larch, Maple, Sycamore, Oak, Pine, Elm, &c.—whatever has the highest local value— here and there throughout the crop on spots favourable to their growth. admixture with Beech, the hardwoods and the best classes of conifers not only grow more quickly and attain larger dimensions than otherwise, but they also then form wood of superior quality, fetching the highest market rate. Beech being a shade-enduring kind of tree, the best returns will of course be obtained when the crops are grown in fairly close cover, as it is only by such means that the soil can be kept in the fresh moist condition which yields the largest increment; otherwise the moisture is soon evaporated from limy soil unduly exposed to the action of sun and wind. Hence it will be evident that, cæteris paribus, Beech-woods should give much better returns when forming large compact tracts of woodland than when they are merely scattered over small areas on exposed hill-tops.

In

On good, deep, loamy, and clayey soil Oak has hitherto frequently been the principal crop; but the upward tendency of market rates for timber seems to indicate that it might be more advantageous to grow Ash, Maple, Sycamore, and Larch to a much larger extent, either in place of Oak or else in admixture with it. If Oak sells locally for 2s. 6d. a cubic foot and Ash for 2s., it will obviously be preferable to favour the latter-(1) as it grows more quickly than will make up for the 20 per cent of difference here indicated in price as making it equal in value to Oak, (2) as its wood is saleable in smaller dimensions than Oak, and (3) as it reaches its full marketable maturity at an earlier age than Oak. Another advantage of having Ash, Maple, and Sycamore in admixture with Oak is that on being cut out, so that the Oak is left as a standard, their stool-shoots or seedlings often form profitable underwood, or, at any rate, can form the basis for this, with the assistance of sowing. Otherwise, underwood ought to be formed by sowing or planting Beech, Hazel, &c., to protect the soil against deterioration through sun and wind. Although, both in admixture with Oak and as underwood in the older crops of Oak, Beech effects this object in view, yet there can be no doubt that in Britain the financial advantage will lie far more with the other hardwoods than with Beech for use in this way. And this applies also to copse and coppice, as well as to highwoods.

Although there are often distinct local advantages obtainable from pure crops of only one kind of tree, yet, on the whole, the formation of mixed crops usually deserves the preference. They have the largest rate of growth per stem and per acre; they protect the fertility of the soil better than pure woods of light-demanding species (Oak, Larch, &c.); they are easier to reproduce, naturally and artificially; and they also most important point of all with regard to conifers-diminish the danger of damage from wind, snow, ice, insects, fungous diseases, and fire. These advantages, however, can only be fully attained when the different trees forming the mixture are intended to be felled and utilised at various ages; otherwise, in the case of a mixture of light-demanding trees,