PLANTING AND REGENERATION 119 



indigenous trees would reproduce their kind without 

 difficulty, as they did before sylviculture was practised in 

 any shape or form. But most English woods contain an 

 undue proportion of rabbits or ground game, which eat off 

 seedlings as soon as they appear, or before they have any 

 chance of reaching a safe size. 



Another obstacle to natural regeneration in many woods 

 is the dirty and weedy condition of the surface, owing to the 

 thin crop of trees on the ground. Docks, nettles, thistles, 

 brambles, bracken, grass, etc., clothe the surface of thin woods 

 during every summer, and any seedlings that happen to 

 come up are quickly suffocated. For natural regeneration to 

 take place successfully, ground game must be almost or 

 entirely absent, or it must be netted out of the area to be 

 regenerated, as in the case of planting. Weeds and rubbish 

 must also have been previously kept in check by the shade 

 and density of the mature crop, or no seedlings will survive 

 the first summer. In the absence of these two conditions, 

 natural regeneration need not be thought of, and it is 

 probably owing to their rare occurrence that this method of 

 re-stocking woods is so seldom aided or encouraged. Yet, 

 although it cannot become anything like general in English 

 forestry, it is undoubtedly a fact that the necessary conditions 

 do exist to a greater or less extent on every estate, and the 

 lack of results is only due to the absence of all organised 

 assistance in the direction described below. It is not 

 asserted that the conditions referred to are general over a 

 large area, or that the process can be depended upon to take 

 the place of replanting generally ; but no good reason exists 

 why a part at least of our woodland area should not be 

 reproduced from time to time by natural methods, which 

 involve no expense and very little trouble. 



The species adapted for natural regeneration are few in 

 number, and these alone will be dealt with in detail. As 

 principles which apply to all of them, it may be said that 

 the most important are the provision of a plentiful supply 

 of seed and the existence of a suitable seed-bed. Good crops 

 of seed are produced at more or less regular intervals by all 

 our common forest trees, and these depend a good deal upon 

 the previous and current season. A well-ripened condition 



