Abstract
MANY will welcome the small Forestry Commission pamphlet No. 2 of the Forest Operations Series (who invents these cumbersome titles?) on the “Establishment of Hardwoods” (London : H.M. Stationery Office. 9d. net). The small area of 35,000 acres only was afforested or replanted in Britain with various hardwoods during the first twenty-five years of the Forestry Commission. A bulletin recording the information so far gathered on the subject of sowing and planting to form the new plantations was in the press just before the outbreak of war, but was destroyed during the bombing of London. The present one has been prepared from a report of Mr. A. H. Popert, acting conservator in the south-west of England, as a result of a tour of the Commission‘s hardwood plantations. It is perfectly well known that the raising and tending of young hardwood crops, save in exceptionally favourable circumstances of habitat, are more difficult and call for more experience than is required for conifers. The bulletin gives notes on the chief timber species—oak, beech, ash, sycamore, sweet chestnut, birch and alder. It also deals with the treatment of coppice woods and devastated woodlands ; on these latter subjects, some who have lived with and studied coppice; areas may differ from the views contained in the paper. As a result of war-time and present-day fellings of the fine hardwoods, it is noted that the “Establishment of broad-leaved trees is likely to assume increasing importance in British Forestry”.
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Establishment of Hardwoods in Britain. Nature 162, 97 (1948). https://doi.org/10.1038/162097a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/162097a0