io6 BRITISH FOREST TREES 



profitable working must be subordinated to the main object 

 of maintaining the mountain-tops under woodland, there are 

 three distinct forms of reproduction, all of which are practised 

 in regular annual falls. These are : 



1. Natural reproduction under parent standards. 



2. Total clearance in narrow strips, with natural repro- 

 duction from neighbouring w r oods. 



3. Total clearance of annual fall, with artificial reproduc- 

 tion (usually by planting). 



Natural reproduction under parent standards is especially 

 practicable in respect to mixed crops of spruce with silver 

 fir and beech, but is, however, also adopted in pure spruce 

 forests on level soil, where late frosts or attacks of cockchafer 

 grubs (Melolontha vitlgaris) are to be feared on an extensive 

 scale, and experience has further shown that in forests thus 

 reproduced the dangers from Curculionidae are likewise dimin- 

 ished. Other local circumstances must of course be taken 

 into consideration, and this method of reproduction will 

 often recommend itself in outlying and sheltered localities, 

 where the proprietor does not wish to incur the usually 

 moderate costs of artificial regeneration. The results of 

 natural reproduction under parent standards are varying. In 

 some situations the parent standards are not much exposed 

 to the violence of storms, but in most localities this is unfor- 

 tunately not the case. The young crop often varies much 

 in quality ; in some situations a moist soil is favourable to 

 germination and the seedlings stand too thick, whilst in other 

 places reproduction is slow and unequal, resulting in thin 

 patches of seedling growth of different ages, necessitating 

 some artificial assistance, and adding considerably to the 

 costs of tending later on. 



The method of total clearance with natural reproduc- 

 tion from neighbouring woods, was formerly much more 

 frequently adopted than is now the case. The fall for repro- 



