21 



A great many pure stands may be seen in the forests of Germany. 

 Some of them were established over 100 years ago and are now ready 

 to be cut. After more than a century of experience in planting, the 

 German foresters are abandoning the policy of establishing pure 

 stands and are advocating mixed forests. Mixed forests may con- 

 sist of a mixture by single trees or of a mixture by groups. The mix- 

 ture may be temporary or permanent, even-aged or uneven-aged. 



We should aim to improve the composition of our forests by re- 

 ducing the percentage of inferior species and increasing that of 

 the more valuable ones. The present cover types which consist of 

 many despised, some neutral, and a few prized species, should be 

 transformed into the future management types which will be charac- 

 terized by a simpler but superior composition. 



THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FOREST. 



As rapidly as the mature forests on absolute forest soil are re- 

 moved they sould be succeeded by young forests. These new forests 

 which follow in the wake of those removed may be established by one 

 or by a combination of the following methods: (1) Natural, where 

 nature, aided to a limited extent by man, sows seeds and produces 

 sprouts. (2) Artificial, where man sows the seeds or plants the 

 seedlings. The former is usually spoken of as natural regeneration 

 and the latter as artificial regeneration. In both methods nature 

 does most of the work; but man helps nature more in the artificial 

 method than in the natural method. Nature working through many 

 centuries produced the original forest. We cannot wait for nature 

 to produce another original forest on our forest soils. It will take 

 too long. We may assist nature and attempt even to improve upon 

 its way of doing things; but we must be careful that we do not de- 

 viate too far from its methods for fear of being punished. 



In the case of artificial regeneration it is necessary to collect seeds 

 from desirable trees. These collected seeds may be sown imme- 

 diately or stored. If stored, they must be protected from such ani- 

 mals as mice, squirrels, and birds, and from drought. The seeds 

 may be placed between layers of sand to prevent drying out. Those 

 seeds which are sown immediately may be sown directly upon the 

 area where they are expected to germinate and establish themselves 

 or they may be sown in beds in a nursery where they in time develop 

 into seedlings. Direct sowing may be in the form of broadcasting, 

 where the seeds are scattered rather uniformly over the area or spot 

 planting, and where only isolated or scattered spots, often regularly 

 spaced, are sown with seeds. 



The nurseries in which the seeds are sown may be permanent and 

 located in the open, or temporary and located in the forest under the 



