FOREST LITTER. 49 



latter devouring forest seeds; but certain blanks may be 

 found suitable for geese, and the damage done by fowls and 

 pigeons is inconsiderable. 



7. Forest Litter* 



As the removal of litter consisting either of the soil-covering 

 of dead leaves, needles, humus, moss, etc., or of branches of 

 forest trees in full foliage, is the most hurtful form of utilisa- 

 tion of minor forest produce, its permission must be looked 

 upon as altogether exceptional, and only to be granted under 

 most pressing necessity (scarcity of straw, etc.). 



The then requisite protective measures are : 



Limitation of the quantity of litter to be removed to what 

 is absolutely required by local farmers and peasants. Not a 

 word should be heard in favour of selling the litter to others. 



If the rides, roads, ditches, places from which the wind would 

 inevitably blow away the litter, and hollow places where it 

 becomes heaped-up unnecessarily deep do not suffice for the 

 requisite supply of litter, then felling-areas with high herbage 

 should be opened, but growing woods only as a last resort. 



Only places with fertile, deep and fresh soil can bear a limited 

 deprivation of litter. On poor, shallow, easily dried, hot soils 

 and on sunny aspects, the collection of litter must be uncon- 

 ditionally refused. So also in woods that are insufficiently 

 stocked, or in badly growing woods, of quality under 0'7. 



Woods which have not yet attained their maximum height- 

 growth must be closed against the removal of litter. The 

 necessary close-time depends on the species, the locality, and 

 the length of rotation (r) ; it should be at least ^ r for High 

 Forest and Coppice- with- Standards, j r for Coppice, but for 

 exacting species, such as the beech, we must wait up to J r 

 even in high forest. 



The repetition of the utilisation of litter is allowable only 

 after a certain close-time, which varies from 5 to 10 years 

 according to species of wood, quality of locality, rate of 

 growth, etc. 



* For an account of the value of humus in the soil of a forest, see Vol. II., 

 3rd edition, p. 41, et seq., and Vol. V., part II., chap. VII. 



F.P. B 



