54 FORESTRY 



welfare of the stand will permit. So the forest is cut 

 in two operations. In the first cutting, about two thirds 

 of the mature timber is taken. All the old, over-mature 

 trees and those damaged or rotten or otherwise defec- 

 tive, come out in this cut. The trees which are not taken 

 are marked either with paint or by blazing with an axe. 

 They comprise all the young rapidly growing trees, sound, 

 with good crowns, capable of producing plenty of seed. 

 If the stand is all over-mature, seed trees are selected as 

 well as possible from these trees. A much larger per 

 cent of the stand is left than in the seed-tree method 

 previously described. The result of the first cut should 

 be an even-aged stand of seedlings over at least half the 

 area. After an interval of 30 to 40 years, the remain- 

 der of the stand may be cut. There will be a great 

 irregularity still, but the stand will be reduced roughly 

 to two age classes, which is a great improvement over 

 the original form. This scheme is being put into opera- 

 tion very widely on National Forests in the Rocky Moun- 

 tains. 



Reproduction of Even-Aged Stands by Successive Cut- 

 tings.e=A more advanced system of reproduction by mak- 

 ing several cuttings, is practiced in Europe with hard- 

 woods, such as beech, where the young plants must spring 

 up under the old trees. The forest has in the past been 

 brought into an even-aged form. When the stand is 

 ready to cut, a few trees are first taken out to give light. 

 The seedlings at once start up. Then more of the old 

 timber is removed and after three or four cuttings on the 

 same area, it is all gone, leaving a dense and thrifty 

 young even-aged stand in its place. Many of our trees 

 could be handled in this way if the time ever came when 

 we could, with high markets for all classes of wood prod- 

 ucts and cheap labor, afford to cut any kind of wood at 

 any time, and thus finally bring our mixed forests to the 

 condition of pure or nearly pure even-aged stands. Heavy 



