76 BRITISH FOREST TREES 



ramification and coronal development. Such soil-preparation 

 need not take place over the whole area, but is at least advis- 

 able in bands or strips of twelve to twenty inches broad, occur- 

 ring at intervals of three to four feet ; the covering of weeds 

 should be removed till the soil is reached, and this should 

 if possible be broken up slightly early in spring, so that the 

 seed may find a good bed for germination on being shed 

 from the cones with the advent of somewhat warmer weather. 



Where the quality of the soil is good enough to make 

 natural reproduction advisable, twelve to twenty parent 

 standards per acre, equally distributed over the area, will be 

 found sufficient, especially if high forest of the same species 

 be near the fall and assist in the distribution of seed. Where, 

 however, it is desirable that the advantages of increased 

 growth in girth, through freer exposure to light and air, 

 should be attained by a greater number of stems before they 

 are felled and extracted, this can be arranged for by re- 

 producing in circles of forty to fifty yards diameter with very 

 few standards surrounded by a belt or girdle of ten to twenty 

 yards broad in which the seed-shedding parent trees are 

 more numerous. The standards are first removed in three 

 to four years from the central area, and those from the girdle 

 gradually during the next ten to twelve years. If under the 

 latter the germination and establishment of the Scots pine 

 has not been successful other species can be sown, and 

 thus at the end of the period of reproduction the area will 

 be covered with circular groups, of about one-third of an 

 acre each, consisting of pine of equal age, surrounded by 

 belts, ten to twenty yards broad, of shade-bearing species like 

 spruce or silver fir, in which patches of pine also occur, 

 whereby to a certain extent the advantages of mixed forests 

 over pure crops will be attained. 



On the poorer classes of soil natural reproduction is not 

 advisable, although where groups or large patches of well- 



