626 FOREST LITTER. 



height, but must be kept as long as possible in the case of 

 younger or oliler woods. No rigid interval should therefore be 

 adopted for close-time, but its length should vary according to 

 variation in the locality or the condition of the woods. 



7. Season. 

 Heather and broom should be harvested just before they are 

 completely in blossom, ferns* in the autumn ; on regeneration- 

 areas it is better to collect litter somewhat late in the year. 

 Branch-litter must be lopped in autumn and winter only. 

 Ground-litter should be raked up chiefly in autumn, Avhile the 

 leaves are falling. Wherever the removal of litter must take 

 place in spring, it should be restricted as much as possible in 

 quantity ; the farmer, however, requires more litter in spring 

 than in autumn. Dry weather is preferable for the removal of 

 litter as the work is then less laborious, and because, in 

 wet weather, in order to obtain dry litter, the peasant will select 

 those very places which arc most liable to damage. 



8. Plan of Operations. 

 It is in many places usual to draw up a plan of operations for 

 the removal of litter, to serve for a longer or shorter series of 

 years ; this is usually revised at the same time as the 

 forest working plan. In such a plan all compartments are 

 designated which may be opened for the removal of litter, 

 subject to a suitable close-time, and the plan is based on area. 

 Although this plan is drawn up on diftcrent principles in the 

 different German countries, yet they all agree in excluding from 

 the usage areas requiring protection, and especially all kinds of 

 young woods. After this is deducted, the remaining area is 

 divided by the figure representing the rotation of the litter, the 

 quotient being area which is opened annually for the removal of 

 litter. In order to compensate for the withdrawal of the annual 

 felling-areas from the area open to the removal of litter, an 

 area of the oldest woods equal to those which were closed, must 

 be opened annually to the usage. In countries where years of 



• Hon. G. Lascellcs, Deputy Surveyor, New Forest, states that if bracken is cut 

 before the end of Sciiteniber, as in the forest of Dean, its rhizomes become greatly 

 weakened, and the crop becomes gradually poorer. — Th.] 



