io8 BRITISH FOREST TREES 



annual fall comprise too large an area, as it is in every way 

 of unquestionable advantage to have a series of self-contained 

 blocks, each comprising within itself crops varying from one 

 to eighty or a hundred years, instead of one large block 

 simply divided into eighty or a hundred annual com- 

 partments or falls. 



Natural Reproduction. When reproduced naturally under 

 parent standards, no preparatory fellings are necessary to 

 stimulate the production of seed and prepare the soil for its 

 reception. When a good seed-year seems favourable for repro- 

 ductive fellings, they are made so as rather to resemble those 

 in beech and silver fir, than in Scots pine forests ; but on 

 account of the danger from wind the number of trees left 

 per acre is greater, only from \ to \ of the total number of 

 trees forming close canopy being removed, so that during 

 storms the crowns can afford each other some measure of 

 support. On moist soil, a lighter disposal of the parent 

 trees would also favour a rank growth of weeds, which is 

 more prejudicial to young spruce than even a considerable 

 degree of shade from lofty standards. The period of 

 reproduction is much shorter than with beech or silver fir, 

 as the seed-years are more frequent, and the amount of seed 

 produced greater, besides which the young seedling growth 

 is not so absolutely shade-demanding as with these other 

 species. From the pine it also differs essentially, not only 

 in the more abundant, though not more frequent, pro- 

 duction of seed, but also in that the seed ripens in about 

 six months, in place of being delayed till eighteen months 

 after the flowering. 



The shape that it is advisable to give the area to be 

 reproduced is dependent on the extent of the danger from 

 wind ; the greater the danger, the more should repro- 

 duction take place in long narrow strips, on which the number 

 of trees along the middle should be greater than towards the 



