235J Government Forestry Abrotui. 51 



popular and legislative neglect. The system of in- 

 discriminate depredation which is so familiar to us 

 in the United States was in full vogue when he 

 arrived. His first work was to survey the boundary 

 lines of the forest. He then succeeded in getting a 

 bill through the Colonial Parliament, claims against 

 the government forest area as he had surveyed it 

 were heard and decided, and the lines of the State 

 reserve were definitely fixed. He was now ready to 

 regulate the management, which was accomplished 

 on the following basis: The whole area, 150 square 

 miles, was divided into a number of units called 

 series (from a French forest term), and each 

 series was again cut up into forty coupes, in 

 one of which the cutting is localized each year. The 

 system may be called, from a partial translation of 

 its French name, '-localized selection." It is a 

 modification of what Dr. Schlich has called "the 

 shelter- wood selection system." The beat of a 

 guard is coextensive with a series, and within this 

 area the felling passes over the same ground once 

 in forty years. The faults of the present selection 

 system are that the per cent, of the valuable tim- 

 ber trees is rapidly diminishing in a country where 

 fire-wood is not saleable, and that it exposes the for- 

 est unduly to the attacks of fire, its chief enemy 

 there as here. For these reasons the present treat- 

 ment is to be gradually converted into regular high 

 forest. 



The volume and character of the trees marked to 

 fall in each year are entered in a book, and from it 

 the purchases are made. The buyer presents his 

 felling license to the guard of the coupe in ques- 

 tion, and cuts and removes the timber himself. 



