THE USE OF THE FOREST. 



279 



ture a year later than those in the part cut the previous year. Where 

 the trees of each part are thirty years old at cutting, thirty years is 

 called the "rotation period." The coppice is said to be managed on 

 a thirty-year rotation. The system is widely used in eastern United 

 States, for fuel, posts, charcoal, railway ties, and other small stuff, 

 as well as for tan-bark. This system is modified by maintaining an 

 overwood composed of seedling trees or selected sprouts above a 

 stand of sprouts. This is called the Reserve Sprout method and is 

 used with admirable results by the French. 



Seed Forests. In contrast with coppice forests, those raised from 

 seeds produce the best class of timber, such as is used for saw logs. 



Seeding from the side, Fig. 

 124. Many forests naturally 

 spread at their borders from 

 the scattering of their seeds. 

 "Old field pine" is so called 

 from its tendency to spread in 

 this way on old fields. This 

 natural "Seeding from the 

 Side" has given rise to the 

 "Group System," in which an 

 area of ripe trees is cut off and 

 the trees alongside are de- 

 pended upon to reproduce new 

 ones on the cut-over area. The 

 openings are gradually enlarged 

 until all the old timber is cut 

 out, and the young growth has 

 taken its place. In its best 

 form there is a definite "rota- 

 tion period," say eighty years. 



This system is simple, safe, and very useful, especially for small open- 

 ings in woodlots. A modification of this is the "Strip System," in 

 which long narrow openings, say seventy-five yards wide, are cut out 

 and gradually widened. The strips are cut in the proper direction 

 so that the prevailing winds will cross them, both for the sake of 

 avoiding windfalls and to help scatter the seed. Where the soil is 

 very dry, the strips may run east and west to protect the seedlings 

 from the sun. 



Fig-. 124. Seeding- from the Side. White Pine. 

 New Hampshire. U.S. Forest Service. 



