232 ON THE CORSICAN FIE. 



shelter. When the other plants are not so much exposed to the 

 danger, i.e., when they have grown out of the influence of the cold 

 strata of air, tlie fir may then be at once removed. 



The reproduction of forests of this tree may take place either 

 by natural or by artificial means. The natural reproduction may 

 be effected in three ways, viz. : — 



1. Long thin strips of forest land are cleared of their timber, 

 and the area laid bare is allowed to remain uncovered until the 

 wind wafts the seed from the neighbouring trees to the open 

 space. The shape of these areas ought tlien to be a long narrow 

 rectangle, whose longer side is at right angles to the direction of 

 the winds prevalent at the time when the cones open and the 

 seeds fiy out ; the direction in which the forest is reproduced 

 should consequently be contrary to that wind, except in 

 extremely exposed situations, in which even the Corsican fir is 

 apt to be broken or uprooted. Then the fellings must go 

 contrary, and with the longer side perpendicular to the most 

 dangerous wind. The breadth of such rectanoular fellings should 

 not at most exceed about 200 feet; the broader they are the 

 longer the area is of being covered with young plants. The 

 reproduction is uncertain, and usually of long duration ; in the 

 meantime, the increase of growth that would have been obtained 

 had sowing or planting operations been begun immediately after 

 the clearing is in great part lost, the soil is exposed to the danger 

 of becoming impoverished, and the young woods, besides being 

 as a rule incomplete, are composed of plants of different ages, 

 scattered either singly or in groups over the area. 



This method will only be practised in out-of-the-way places, 

 where, in order to cover the expenses of the necessary slips, &c., 

 for conveying the timber to a favourable mart, all that is on the 

 area must be felled at once, while at the same time it does not 

 pay to sow over or plant up the clearance. It is almost super- 

 fluous to remark that the fellings must not be carried on annually 

 at the same part of the forest, for in that case the total clearings 

 would grow very broad, and seed would not reach the older ones. 



In parts of the Austrian Alps this mode of natural reproduc- 

 tion is pursued, but for Scotland it can be of little importance. 



(2.) By means of trees left on the area alter felling operations, 

 for the purpose of casting seed around them. 



As the woods of Corsican fir, about the age of 70 to 100 years, 

 are light, and not with a closed roof of foliage, like the beech or 

 silver fir for examjDle, the preparatory felling generally necessary 

 in the case of these latter is not requisite, the seed felling, for 

 which only about 23 to 30 trees left standing per acre suffice, 

 can at once be made. Seed is j^roduced almost annually, 

 although not frequently in large quantities, so that it generally 

 lasts about four or five years before all the seed trees are cleared 



