166 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



A PURE STAND OF BEECH. 



BEECH IS OFTEN USED TO REGENERATE THE SOIL AFTER SEVERAL REVOLUTIONS OF OAK. FOREST OF EURE, FRANCE. 



forests are, however, a terrible mixture, 

 hardly any two adjoining trees being 

 alike, though one or two tree species, 

 such as oaks and maples, usually pre- 

 dominate. 



Now, every section on a French forest 

 is of trees all of the same species and 

 all of the same age, though each section 

 differs from the next in the age of the 

 trees on it ; yet none of it is planted nor 

 ever will be, for, by an ingenious system 

 of cutting, the complete regeneration of 

 the section in the same species and in 

 pure stand is obtained before all the old 

 trees are cut off. Instead of taking off 

 all the trees on a section at one cutting, 

 a seeding cut is first made, that is, 

 enough trees are taken to let in the 

 sunlight on the forest floor. Now, 

 every two or three years the forest has 

 a heavy seed year throughout its life, 

 but usually these seeds do not germinate 



for lack of sun. A few do, as in a 

 natural forest, for that is Nature's way 

 of keeping up the species thousands of 

 seeds in order that one tree may survive 

 to take the place of the parent tree. 

 But, with the seeding cut, in comes the 

 sun, and a large proportion of the seeds 

 germinate and soon the forest floor is 

 covered with a thick growth of young 

 seedlings. These need at first shade, 

 not because the young tree wants it 

 but because the humid soil would soon 

 dry out if only these little seedlings 

 protected it from the sun. Three years 

 later the young seedlings need more 

 sun, and a secondary cut is made, letting 

 in a very large amount of sunlight, in 

 fact the remaining old trees do little 

 but shade the young saplings and fill in 

 any bare spots with their own seed. At 

 the tenth year from the seeding cut the 

 terminal cut is made, and all the old 



