Soim Aspects of European Forestry. 479 



of the stand removed than is silviculturally desirable. The usual 

 result is much grass and weeds, scattering young growth and 

 the necessity of artificial restocking. This can be avoided by a 

 gradual reduction in the size of felling areas and mitigated by 

 the leaving of scattered seed trees of windfirm species as re- 

 serves on areas otherwise cut clean. 



4. In Austria, as in America, economic conditions often neces- 

 sitate the removal of all the best timber and the leaving of the 

 scrubby, diseased, ill-shaped, unmerchantable stuff. The seed- 

 lings from such obnoxious parents are unfit to form the future 

 stand and should be used only as a last resort. In their stead 

 the additional increment, partial shade and vigorous offspring 

 of thrifty seed trees will repay leaving them scattered or group- 

 wise as "reserves" in clear cutting; in shelterwood regeneration 

 it is equally important to remove the obnoxious individuals in 

 the seed felling or in preparatory fellings if these are possible. 



5. Where, in shelterwood regeneration, a seed year anticipated 

 the seed cutting, the usual cutting can be made to advantage after 

 the seed matures. 



6. Where natural regeneration fails, despite a good seed year, 

 a superficial working of the ground just before the next seed 

 year often brings about the desired results. A light, patchy 

 cover of grass is no menace to re-seeding but a dense mat of 

 weeds and grass usually precludes natural regeneration. 



7. Too long a wait for natural regeneration entails a loss in 

 timber yield and soil productivity. Where this loss approaches 

 the cost of artificial restocking it is poor economy to wait any 

 longer for nature to restock the area. 



IX. Methods of Artificial Regeneration in Austria. 



As Oberforstrat Reuss points out in his book on Methods of 

 Regenerating Stands, * regeneraton by seed divides into natural 

 reproduction and artificial reproduction. The methods of secur- 

 ing the former are discussed in the preceeding Article VIII. In 

 the present article the methods of artificial regeneration will be 

 treated under the guiding hand of Oberforstrat Reuss who is a 



*"Die forstliche Bestandsbegriindung," Berlin, Julius Springer, 1907, 



