SELECTION AND GROUP SYSTEMS 23 



1. The Selection System. 



To all intents and purposes, this is the system as adopted 

 by nature. There are trees of practically all ages over the 

 entire area ; and as they become marketable they are cut ; 

 regeneration is practically continuous, and is almost always 

 brought about by natural agencies. 



It is a system that should never be practised except in 

 the case of shade-bearing trees ; and it is more suited for 

 the growth of Beech than for any other kind of timber. Inas- 

 much as the area is never clear cut, the system has much to 

 recommend it on poor soils or in exposed situations, where 

 the laying bare of the soil is avoided. Again, when sport- 

 ing is a consideration, it will perpetually afford a certain 

 amount of somewhat inferior covert for game preservation. 

 It is, however, absolutely essential that rabbits should be 

 exterminated, otherwise natural regeneration cannot take 

 place. 



It is the system under which Beech are grown on the 

 Chiltern Hills. 



In practice, mature timber will only be cut on the same 

 area about once in every 10 to 20 years. 



2. The Group System. 



This system is an expansion as it were of the selection 

 system. It derives its name from the fact that fellings and 

 regeneration are started in groups or patches. 



These groups or patches vary in size from about 20 yards 

 diameter up to J to i acre. Its derivation from the selection 

 system is very evident, for under the selection system, 

 wherever a big tree is felled, a vacant patch is left ; and, for 

 the greater part, the young trees that will cover this patch 

 will all be of the same age. When one group or patch is 

 regenerated, another is then felled and regenerated in its 

 turn ; and so on, until the whole area is regenerated. The 

 groups are seldom of similar shape, and usually they are seen 

 as strips or bands encircling the various centres where the 

 regeneration was begun. There is always a period of years 



