DIVISION OF FORESTEY. 219 



To be sure it requires f rom_ three to eight times the area usually- 

 brought under operation, but instead of going over the whole area 

 every year it may be operated in a number of small camjos systemat- 

 ically placed along a central road connecting the different camps or 

 cuttings with the mill. An ideal arrangement of such management 

 may be sketched thus : 



Suppose we have to supply a mill with 2,000,000 feet from pine 

 lands, cutting 8,000 feet an acre, trees which bear seed every two 

 years, and let the period in which full reforestation can be expected 

 be six years. Then a ti^act of 3,500 acres, or an area of about 3 miles 

 long and li miles broad, must be taken together into operation. 



Dividing the tract by a central road on which the mill is situated 

 and making the cutting's 800 feet wide by 1^ miles long, each cutting 

 will contain 54 acres, and about 5 such cuttings will furnish one year's 

 supply, with an average haulage of less than 1 mile to mill — 26 cut- 

 tings will be located on each side of the road. 



The most elaborate method, based and worked on the best scientific 

 principles, for which, however, I am afraid our time has not yet come, 

 is that which we may term the 



REGENERATION METHOD. 



This method presupposes the growing of timber to maturity, like 

 the former, and depends for the reforestation upon the seed from the 

 mature trees; but it acts upon the consideration of the conditions 

 under which seeds are ripened and germinate, the requirements of 

 the young plants during the first years, especially in regard to light 

 and shade and their further development as a homogeneous crop. 

 This method has been carefully elaborated, with much detail, for the 

 different species forming European forests. But as its application in 

 the near future in our forests cannot be expected, it may suffice to 

 give the rationale underlying it. In the first place, it is necessary to 

 know the period at which a full seed year can be expected. This 

 differs according to locality and kind,* One or more years before 

 such a seed year is expected the hitherto dense crown cover is broken 

 bv a preparatory cutting, enough of the inferior timber being taken 

 out to let in some light, or rather warm sunshine, which favors a 

 fuller development of seed, the increased circulation of air and light 

 at the same time hastening the decomposition of the leaf -mold and 

 thus forming an acceptable seed-bed. 



As soon as the seed has dropped to the soil, and perhaps, in the case 

 of acorns and nuts, been covered by allowing pigs to run where it has 

 fallen, a second cutting takes place unifornuy over the area to be re- 

 generated, in order that the seeds may have the best chance for ger- 

 mination — air, moisture, and heat to some degree being necessary — 

 and that the seedlings may have a proper enjoyment of light for their 

 best development and yet not be exposed too much to the hot rays 

 of the sun, which by producing too rapid evaporation and drying up 

 the needful soil moisture would endanger the tender seedlings. This 

 cutting requires the nicest adjustment, according to the state of the 



*In Germany such seed years occur in beech, according to locaHty, every three to 

 twenty years, and account is kept of them. In NorthernNew York the beech seems 

 to bear full seed every two years; like periodicity of seeding in the white pine 

 (probably triennial for most localities) and in the long-leaf pine (probably five to 

 seven years) has been observed. 



