THE NATURAL REGENERATION OF WOODS. 79 
measure of success may be looked for, but if the operations have not 
been skilfully conducted, or if severe gales have overturned many 
of the mother-trees before seeding has been accomplished, and the 
young plants have become securely established, or if it should turn 
out after seed-felling that the trees are so old as to be incapable of 
bearing a sufficient quantity of good seed, then, indeed, the con- 
sequences may be most disastrous. In the event of failure from 
any cause, the surface of the ground is long deprived of the shade 
and shelter afforded by the young crop of trees, and if the situation 
is naturally a poor one, that is to say, if it has the store of forest 
humus chiefly to thank for its productive power, the fertility which 
has been gradually accumulated during the previous rotation is soon 
dissipated to such an extent that the restocking of the ground, either 
artificially or naturally, becomes a most difficult matter. If the soil 
is naturally rich, then the same danger sinks in significance, though 
only in situations of the very highest quality can it be said to dis- 
appear altogether. 
It is always well to guard against great calamities by not taking 
very large areas in hand at one time. Large woods should be 
divided into compartments of moderate size, which may be regarded 
as separate woods, and be regenerated at different times. 
The system works best where the area is pretty flat and the soil 
of the same character throughout, because in that case the closeness 
of the wood and the development of the trees are uniform over the 
whole area, so that there exists no necessity to hurry the operations 
in one part and delay them in another. 
Having looked somewhat carefully at the foregoing system, the 
others may be dealt with much more shortly. The advance, seed, 
and light fellings are more or less common to all systems, and 
therefore what has been already said in connection with them need 
not be repeated. 
The system which we have already considered undergoes an im- 
portant modification when a wood, instead of being simultaneously 
regenerated over the whole area, is divided into a number of bands 
or stripes, each representing some particular stage of regeneration. 
This gives rise to the system known as the shelter-wood band 
system, under which one commences the process of regeneration at 
one side of the wood, and proceeds systematically towards the 
other. It is of great importance to begin at the side of the wood 
farthest away from the quarter from which the severest gales blow 
—that is to say, in this country one would begin on the east or 
