SCIENCE IN FORESTRY 



By W. DAWSON, M.A. 



Reader in Forestry in the University of 

 Cambridge. 



In the primeval forest the ground is irregularly 

 stocked with trees. In one place there is a dense 

 mass of trees intensively engaged in the struggle 

 for existence ; in another the ground is stocked with 

 a sparse crop of over-ripe trees, which in time 

 succumbs to age or disease, and then the ground 

 will, under certain conditions, again be covered 

 with young growth. In the over-stocked areas the 

 individual tree is cramped, and as its root has not 

 adequate room for development, nor has its crown 

 an adequate supply of light, its increment is 

 hindered. In the course of time, the more vigorous 

 individuals prevail at the expense of the less vigor- 

 ous, but a period amounting to several decades has 

 passed, in which the individual, which is to form a 

 unit in the final crop, has suffered from the aggression 

 of its neighbours, and only after the loss of much 

 time can it settle down to the business of timber 



S. S. N. 



