CHAPTER VI 

 THE SELECTION METHOD 



Definition. According to the principle of the selection 

 method the oldest or largest trees in a stand are chosen for 

 cutting, and the remainder are left. After one or more years 

 another cutting of the same character is made. This process 

 is repeated at intervals throughout the rotation. The trees 

 taken in a single cutting may occur singly or in small groups. 

 A stand is never completely cleared off, but instead small 

 openings are made here and there. After each cutting re- 

 production should start in the openings just created. The 

 necessary seed will be furnished by the trees standing around 

 the openings. 



Form of Forest Produced. From what has been said it 

 is evident that cuttings under the selection method must 

 produce an unevenaged form of forest. Such form is not a 

 necessary condition for starting the method. Evenaged stands 

 ordinarily contain trees of considerable range in diameter. By 

 selecting at each cutting the largest (if not the oldest) trees, 

 an evenaged stand may be reproduced under the selection 

 method * and eventually converted into unevenaged form. 



A stand ideally suited to a selection method of cutting 

 should contain trees of every age class from one year seedlings 

 to veterans of the rotation age. Such stands are not found 

 in Nature, but are most nearly approximated in virgin forests. 



* An exception to this statement occurs where the smaller trees in an even- 

 aged stand lack the power of recovery from their suppressed condition, or are 

 so small crowned and spindling as to be windthrown, injured by sun-scald, etc. 



83 



