History of Forest Ecology 401 



seeds for reforesting purposes was known near Nuremberg as early 

 as 1368. About 1420 Frankfurt boasted of a young fir forest that 

 had been started by seed. These early attempts were very much 

 localized in portions of the country where industrial conditions 

 were particularly favorable ; it was not until several hundred years 

 later that these methods came into general use. 



It was not until the 18th century, after the great economic and 

 industrial setback caused by the Thirty Years' War, that silvi- 

 cultural technique began to develop. Before this time the natural 

 methods of reproduction already spoken of were the ones chiefly 

 employed to secure the regeneration of the forest. But about this 

 time a new silvi cultural system came into use. In the hardwood 

 forests of western Germany in the beginning of the 18th century the 

 shelterwood system developed from the selection system. The 

 first step in its development was to confine the cut in selection 

 forests to certain areas or compartments instead of selecting the 

 mature trees for cutting without regard to their location as had 

 been done before. The general regulations for selection forests 

 were that wherever a tree was cut the opening should be reforested. 

 In carrying out these rules an interesting observation led to a 

 further step in the development of the system now known as the 

 shelterwood. The turning loose of hogs in the beech and oak 

 forests prepared the soil for beechnuts and acorns and, therefore, 

 assisted to a considerable extent the natural reproduction of these 

 species. The result was that soon the younger age classes pre- 

 dominated. But in order to keep the hogs from damaging the 

 young trees which they had helped to get started, the animals were 

 excluded until the young forests grew out of reach and formed a 

 closed canopy. The result was a more or less even-aged forest 

 secured by natural reproduction from seed. In this purely empi- 

 rical manner the shelterwood system came into being, and it was 

 in this form that it was first used between 1720 and 1730. By 

 1736, three distinct cuttings had developed: the seed cutting, the 

 light cutting, and the final cutting. It was not tmtil 1767 that 

 the preparatory cutting was added. By 1770 the system was 

 fairly well understood. From that time on and for almost 50 

 years the shelterwood system dottiinated silvicultural practice. 

 The modern theory of the shelterwood system, especially its man- 

 Bigement in periodic cuts, was developed by Sarauw. 



While artificial reproduction dates from the 14th century, it 



