FOREST EXPLOITATION. 170 



self-sown seed; and artificial sowing or planting is 

 employed only to fill spaces which may have been left 

 blank in this process, and in the creation of new forests, 

 as in the reboisement of mountains, or the fixing and 

 utilisation of drift sands. 



To give full efficiency to the reproduction of forests by 

 self- sown seed, a succession of fellings is necessary ; and 

 in these the most extensive felling is not the final one. 

 Besides balliveaux left standing when the principal felling 

 is made, to yield seed, and trees of greater age, destined 

 for prolonged growth to produce timber of greater dimen- 

 sions, there are left what is deemed a sufficient number of 

 trees to afford shelter and shade to young seedlings. 

 Subsequently some of these are thinned out, so as to leave 

 only what will suffice to afford for a time partial shade by 

 their shadows falling successively on different portions of the 

 ground as the day advances ; and not until after the seed- 

 lings or saplings no longer require the fostering thus 

 afforded, does the final felling take place. Thereafter, 

 successive thinnings according to prescribed regulations 

 are made all of which contribute to make up the quan- 

 tity of produce required in the periods during which they 

 occur. All of these successive thinnings and fellings are 

 designed for the improvement of the growing crop; and 

 that which clears the ground for the self-sown seed from 

 which is expected another crop, may be reckoned the 

 principal felling, to be followed by the final felling, when 

 the rising generation no longer requires the shade and 

 shelter of the older trees. 



In arranging the order in which successive fellings are 

 to be made, attention has to be given to considerations of 

 how the produce may be brought out with greatest ease 

 and with least detriment to the standing crop, and how 

 growing crops may have secured to them, to as great an 

 extent as possible, protection from prevalent winds and 

 storms. In this matter the method of exploitation under 

 consideration does not stand alone : but with the greater 



