Development of Silviculture. 57 



tion or virgin forest), excepting a number of clean boles, 

 one every ten to twelve paces being left for seed and 

 nnrsetrees. The good results in reproduction stimulated 

 owners of adjotaing estates to imitate the method 

 (1737). 



The observation that in beech forest the young crop 

 needed protection and succeeded better when gradually 

 freed from the shade of the seed trees, especially on 

 south and west aspects where drought, frost and weeds 

 are apt to injure it on sudden exposure, led to the 

 elaboration of the principle of successive fellings. 



In the ordinance of Hanau as early as 1736 three 

 grades of fellings were developed, the cutting for seed, 

 the cutting for light, which was to begin when the young 

 crop was knee-high, and the removal cutting when man- 

 high. 



This method spread rapidly and was further developed 

 by the addition (in 1767) of a preparatory cutting, to 

 secure a desirable seedbed, and by lengthening the period 

 of regeneration and elaborating other detail, so that by 

 1790 the principles of natural regeneration under nurse- 

 trees for beech forest were fully developed in Western 

 Germany. 



In other parts hardwood forest management was but 

 little developed. The Prussian Forest Ordinance of 1786 

 contented itself with forbidding the selection method, 

 but declaring natural regeneration, as practiced in the 

 pineries, not applicable; while the Austrian Ordinance 

 of 1786 recognizes only clearing followed by planting as 

 the general rule. 



b. Artificial Reforestation. Although sporadic at- 

 tempts at sowing and planting are on record as early as 



