26 PROTECTION OF WOODLANDS. 



sufficiently protected, soon gets covered with all sorts of noxious 

 weeds, whortleberry, heather, &c., often cause extreme difficulty 

 in the reproduction of the crop later on. 



A loss in timber is caused by the splitting and breaking of many 

 stems, and a still greater loss arises from the fact that, in con- 

 sequence of breakage and splitting, many stems and boles otherwise 

 suitable for the higher technical purposes of timber, are no longer, 

 or at any rate only partially, thus advantageously utilisable. 



The glutting of the market with timber soon causes prices to 

 sink, more especially as the bulk of the timber thus exposed 

 for sale is usually of small dimensions, consisting of poles, top- 

 ends, brushwood, and the like, so that sometimes it is perfectly 

 unmarketable, and hardly covers the cost of extraction. And at 

 the same time, in contrast to this, when considerable damage has 

 been done over extensive areas by accumulations of snow, the 

 increased demand for workmen, and the greater difficulties than 

 usual connected with preparing the timber for sale, often lead to 

 a very considerable increase in the price of labour. 



The costs of reproductive measures entailed by the necessity of 

 re-wooding blanks, of underplanting crops whose density of canopy 

 has been interfered with, and of re-planting areas where immature 

 crops have had to be cleared, are all practically classifiable under 

 the direct consequences. 



Of indirect or secondary consequences, the most important is danger 

 from insects, owing to the favourable conditions for the mere* 

 of injurious species offered through the innumerable breeding 

 places formed by the broken wood, the damaged and consequentl 

 unhealthy stems and poles, and the stumps and roots remaining ii 

 the ground. Under normal circumstances, a prudent forester 

 moves such material at a proper time ; but when abnormal conditioi 

 obtain, this is often not possible, and bark-beetles (Bostrichini} 

 weevils or proboscid-beetles (Curculionidce), and cambial-beetl* 

 (Hylesinini) increase rapidly, and occasion fresh calamities. 



But in addition to that, extensive damage from snow-accumula- 

 tions can occasion such deviations from the ordinary course of 

 management and the prescribed sequence of the annual falls of 

 timber, and such consequent interferences with the rotation of 

 fellings and the representation of the various age-classes, as to 

 necessitate a re-survey of the existing stock of timber of all ages, 

 and even the formation of an entirely new Working Plan. 



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