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CHAPTER V. 



DRY FALLEN WOOD. 



By the term dry fallen wood is meant all dead branches 

 and twigs lying on the ground and broken from off the trees, 

 either owing to the natural thinning process, or by wind, snow- 

 break, etc., and which may be employed as firewood without 

 using any implements — in fact, can be broken on the knee or by 

 the hand. 



This is the strict definition of dry fiillcn wood : but the loose- 

 ness of interpretation of the term, as frequently employed, may 

 be gathered from the fact, that in many places all dry branch- 

 wood still attached to the trees is included ; in other places it is 

 a])plied to inferior root- and stump-wood, which is not saleable 

 and therefore not up-rooted, also to all unsaleable refuse-wood 

 left on the felling-areas. In some districts the collectors of dry 

 fallen wood {l.cschoh) are permitted to cut down and appropriate 

 dead saplings and small poles. 



The collection of dry fallen wood is a very simple affair ; it is 

 gathered from off" the ground, and when dead branches attached 

 to trees are included, they are pulled off" the trees by means of 

 iron hooks at the end of long poles, or by climbing the tree and 

 lopping them with the axe. The quantity of dry fallen wood 

 produced, and the importance of its collection, from national - 

 economic and sylvicultural aspects, will prove more interesting. 



1. (JiKintifji of Dr/i Fallen Wood availahlc. 



The quantity of dry wood falling on a given area in a certain 

 time, varies greatly according to circumstances : it depends 

 l)rincipally — on the extension of the meaning of the term ; the 

 density and age of the standing crop, and the species of which 

 it is composed ; the nature of the thinnings, whether heavy 

 or light, also on the climate (snow- and ice- break). Averages 



