90 METHODS OF TREATMENT 



nothing. Where, however, weeds are very luxurious the cost 

 of cutting them away may amount to more than the cost of 

 planting with large plants. 



The young crop is greatly protected from frost and drought 

 by the shelter trees, and weed growth is also reduced, while 

 another advantage is that a very large ^number of plants 

 are obtained on an acre, and consequently, with good after 

 management, cleaner and straighter stems are produced. 

 On the other hand the operation is more complicated than 

 planting and requires more highly-skilled woodmen ; other 

 disadvantages are that the removal of felled timber is more 

 difficult and expensive, and that it is not easy, owing to the 

 irregularity of good seed years, to arrange for an equal annual 

 yield of timber, cuttings being heavier in some years than in 

 others. 



To describe how natural regeneration is carried out, the 

 general theory will first be explained, and then such modifi- 

 cations as are usually necessary in British woods will be 

 alluded to. 



The Theory of natural regeneration. 



Let it be assumed that a very dense beech wood about 

 eighty years old is to be cut arid regenerated. In such a wood 

 it will be found that there is overhead a very dark cover, and 

 that the individual trees are tall stemmed and have small 

 crowns; it will also be found that they do not bear much 

 fertile seed. Below, the surface of the ground will be covered 

 with a thick layer of dead leaves and partly decomposed 

 humus, which is not a favourable germinating bed, as the 

 mineral soil is too far from the surface. Under such a wood 

 very few seedlings will, in fact, be found. The first object of 

 the woodman is therefore to get the wood into a fit state for 

 regeneration by inducing the mature trees to produce fertile 

 seed, and, by causing the dead leaves to decompose quickly, 

 to get the soil into a proper condition to receive it. He does 



