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causes. The result is an aggregation of trees of all sizes and ages, many of which are 

 hampered in their growth by the taller ones, and for this reason the quantity of the 

 produce is less than with properly conducted thinnings, and the quality is worse. The 

 frequent working of each portion of the forest is a cause of injury to the young growth, 

 and the large areas over which the fellings are spread each year make supervision difficult. 

 Nevertheless, jardinage has its advantages. It renders regeneration certain, and retains 

 the association of the different species better than any other method. " It ought to be 

 maintained in all forests where protection of, or shelter to, other parts is the chief object, 

 and wherever regeneration is uncertain, difficult, or too slow to enable us to obtain it 

 with certainty in a regular and complete manner in a given space of time. The same 

 rule holds good fot forests of very small extent. 



" As far as protection is concerned, this method should be employed whenever there 

 is reason to fear landslips, avalanches, and the formation of torrents, or where the wind 

 is violent and always blowing, as at the higher limit of vegetation, on mountain ridges, &c. 



Regeneration becomes difficult and uncertain when the climate is extreme or the soil 

 infertile. The climate may be extreme in itself (higher limit of vegetation), or from the 

 absence of shelter (mountain passes, ridges, edges of the forest). The soil is unfertile 

 from its nature (rock, scattered blocks, stones) or owing to a steep gradient (wherever one 

 cannot walk with a sure step). These circumstances may co-exist, and result in a stock 

 that is seldom complete and generally more or less broken up by gaps. They are found 

 in about half the hill forests of conifers under the administration of the Forest Depart- 

 ment. 



In all these circumstances, the existence of constant leaf canopy is imperatively 

 demanded, and to maintain this the action of nature, which gets rid of the trees one by 

 one, has to be imitated. In a word, the selection method must be employed, only the trees 

 must be removed when they are still capable of furnishing useful material."* 



I have quoted Bagneris to show that there are few Natal forests which do not present 

 some of the conditions which make jardinage compulsory. Our forests consist mainly of 

 small patches on steep slopes, and their distribution makes it important to conserve them 

 for the regulation of the water supply. There is only one proper method of treating 

 such forests, and that method is a careful jardinage. Other methods may be adapted to 

 the larger and more level forests, but the regeneration of South African forests is in 

 general so uncertain and irregular that much care would be needed in their application ; 

 the method followed at the Cape, in which heavy fellings are made in small sections of 

 the forests, would be unsafe to adopt in Natal, wherever the young growth has been 

 destroyed by Natives and cattle, as it might mean the ruin of the forest. Close fellings 

 also create a source of danger from fires by allowing accumulations of dry crowns and 



* Bagneris, Elements of Sylviculture, p. 102. 



