•2-Z() FELLINO AND CONVERSION. 



This is the more urgent, the more agriculture is the chief 

 employment of the local i)oj)ulation, which is not the case in ex- 

 tensive forest tracts, where the men work nearly the whole year 

 in the forest, and do not care for other work, whilst the women 

 and children cultivate the small agricultural area. If there are 

 plenty of transport animals in such a country, carting is done 

 chiefly during the open season, or whenever the roads are most 

 passable (which in clay soils with uumetalled roads may be 

 during frost) ; the timl>cr may also be floated during the open 

 season. In industrial countries, where factories abound, there 

 is generally a scarcity of forest labour throughout the year, and 

 especially in summer. 



3. Mode of FcUinfi. 



On sylvicultural grounds, as regards those modes of felling 

 which are not concerned with reproduction, such as clear- 

 cutting, the season is of only slight importance ; it is more 

 important, as in thinnings, when tending the woods is in question, 

 as well as removal of some of the trees. 



Natural regeneration fellings, especially in broad-leaved woods, 

 must be eflected when the fall and transport of the trees will do 

 the least amount of harm to the shelter-wood and young growth, 

 and that is in winter, whenever the ground is covered with 

 snow. 



Clear- cuttings may be effected at any season of the year, unless 

 they are to be immediately followed by sowing or planting. 



Thinnings in young woods are best done whilst the trees are in 

 full foliage, and the best season for them is autumn. When, 

 however, quickly-grown, slender poles in a densely-grown wood 

 are thinned late in the autumn, in exposed localities subject to 

 breakage by snow or rime, they are very liable to be bent or 

 broken ; whilst, if the thinning be executed in spring or summer, 

 they have time to become stronger and often to escape the 

 danger. Whenever injured trees, broken by the wind or snow, 

 or killed by insects, have to bo felled, this is usually done in 

 summer for broad-leaved trees ; but in coniferous woods the 

 injured trees should be fellcil as soon after the damage as 

 possible. 



For pruning the branches of broad-leaved trees, provided the 



