64 THE NEW FORESTRY. 



A register like the foregoing may be modified to suit 

 circumstances, but such a record may be kept with little 

 trouble, and will provide a useful ready reference to the pro- 

 prietor and his forester. 



SECTION II. PERIOD OF ROTATION. 



Rotation in forestry does not necessarily mean the same 

 thing as the rotation of crops practised and enforced in agri- 

 culture, viz., a change of crop. In forestry, rotation means 

 the period that any crop shall occupy the ground from the time 

 it is sown or planted till the ultimate crop is swept away and 

 the ground re-stocked by natural regeneration or planting. 

 Over great tracts of forests on the Continent of Europe, the 

 same species appear to have succeeded each other from time 

 immemorial, but under later and more particular management 

 in Germany, it has been found necessary to regulate the crops 

 and limit the period according to the species. It is signiftcant 

 that in British works on forestry of the past, rotation is hardly 

 alluded to. Yet there is no part of working forestry plans 

 of more importance than the adoption of some scheme of 

 rotation wherever the woods are moderately extensive. Rota- 

 tion, properly carried out, regulates the amount of forest 

 produce to be disposed of annually or periodically, and neces- 

 sarily determines what the equivalent is to be in the shape of 

 regeneration by planting or sowing. These in turn regulate 

 the income from the woods, the expenditure upon them, and 

 the work generally. At present, in British woods, there is no 

 attempt at periodical rotation, hence the confusion in many 

 cases. Let, however, a period of rotation be decided upon on 

 an estate, and the age and condition of every plantation be 

 ascertained, and things at once assume a definite shape, and the 

 owner can look ahead and forecast his plans accordingly. 

 The rotation period need not be fixed on hard and fast lines, 

 but might be regulated by climate, the rate of growth expected, 

 and the purposes for which the timber is grown. On the 

 Continent, oak is allowed about one hundred and fifty years, 

 beech and other hard-woods about one hundred and twenty- 

 five years, and spruce and Scotch fir one hundred years. On 

 private properties, according to Bagneris, short rotations are 

 preferable, in order to guard against the accumulation of a 

 large capital in the shape of standing timber. The want of 

 a rotation system in Britain has frequently led to loss in this 



