I 68 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



exist. " Free thinning " permits this, but later on takes more 

 account of the thinning of the crowns, the best 500 or 600 

 stems per hectare being always favoured. Dominant faulty 

 trees are freely removed. In the silver fir forests those with 

 cankerous growths are worst. Others may be spoiled by 

 having broken tops or frost cracks, or mistletoe growths. 

 Others again have forked growth, or are rough branching 

 trees with low spreading crowns — called by the Germans 

 "wolf" trees, etc. Then again, the suppressed or over- 

 shadowed trees (other than dead or sickly ones), instead of 

 being cut out are purposely retained, not only to protect the 

 soil but also to retard natural regeneration until the proper time 

 — often a very necessary precaution. Overshadowed beeches 

 are found excellent for this purpose when they occur in mixture 

 with the silver fir. They seldom produce any seed, and they 

 serve the purpose of soil-protection admirably. When the 

 proper time for natural seeding is reached they are gradually 

 cut away. 



Under the " free thinning " system, the proportion of thinnings 

 to final yield is very much larger than it was under the old 

 regime, and in the case of light-demanding species like the 

 oak, the proportion may be as high as 150 per cent. 



As regards total production under the two systems, the yield 

 of timber would, at least, be as high under the new system as 

 under the old, and the financial outcome would be much better, 

 because the quality of timber would be better, and the forest 

 could be worked with less locked up capital. 



It is certainly due to this vigorous method of " improvement" 

 thinnings that such excellent results in natural regeneration are 

 obtained in various forest ranges in Baden, but the method is, 

 of course, applicable to all forest species and under every silvi- 

 cultural system. 



The question is often asked, " How is it possible to carry out 

 the felling of the mature timber during the various stages of the 

 natural regeneration, without destroying the young growth?" 

 The work certainly requires a large amount of skill on the 

 part of the woodmen. But it should be remembered, in the 

 first place, that there is no desire to grow trees of excessively 

 large diameter. Tall, straight, cylindrical boles of sufficient 

 but not extra large diameter are most numerous. Then, 

 secondly, trees of the largest dimensions are always removed 



