VARIOUS SYSTEMS OF FOEEETT MANAGEMENT. 55 



many other causes which often produce a sudden and 

 enormous destruction of the woods, causing great desti- 

 tution among nations, and heavy drawbacks to the pro- 

 gress of the general weal and culture of a people. The re- 

 cuperative power of the forests being but slow, the human 

 mind has long been bent upon inventing artificial means 

 for the purpose of always having on hand a sufficient 

 quantity of wood to satisfy the diversified demands of the 

 public. This led to the introduction of a systematic ro- 

 tation in cutting down the woods. The forests are di- 

 vided up into as many if not equal but possibly equiv- 

 alent parts,* as years are required to bring the trees to 

 their maximum growth, and then every year one lot is 

 entirely cleared of trees and thereupon replanted. The 

 next year the same treatment is applied to the second 

 lot, the third year to the third one, and so on until the 

 whole tract is gone over. Then the trees on the first lot 

 will have reached their full growth again, and be ready 

 for the axe. 



This mode was certainly a progressive one, and it is 

 still in practical use in many of the European countries. 

 But it often caused great inconvenience, when the lot to be 

 cut contained trees which were not so much wanted as 

 other trees, that grew upon lots not yet reached by the 

 rotation. And then it was ascertained that the division 

 of the forest alone in as many lots as possible, did not 

 secure an equally sustained production through the suc- 

 cessive cycles of the rotation, the second crop never being 



* The reason why the woods are divided up in this way is to obtain, 

 at every cutting period, an equal average product of the forest vege- 

 tation. As the various portions of a large forest, on account of difference 

 in soil, exposure, etc., often vary very much in their productiveness, parts 

 equal in extent are not always equal in production. To obtain such 

 equivalence, it is necessary to take into consideration the variations in 

 soil, in exposure, and in adaptation to the growth of the kind of trees 

 which happen to be upon it. 



