32 PROTECTION OF WOODLANDS. 



avalanches for they can never have their origin in the interior 

 of woodlands and of forming a protecting dam or obstruction 

 to their downward progress when once they occur on their initial 

 small scale above the wooded areas. These are termed Ban- Wdlder. 

 The constant maintenance of a sufficient number of trees on 

 the area, avoidance of a clear fall of timber, prudent selection of 

 only mature and damaged timber for extraction and utilisation, 

 careful reproduction of the crop, and the judicious use of artificial 

 methods to aid and assist the work of natural regeneration are 

 advisable, not only in the interest of the forest itself, but also of 

 the pastures, arable land, &c., lying below the woodland tracts. 

 The re-wooding of areas whose crops have been destroyed by 

 avalanches is a matter of extreme difficulty, as the latter are apt 

 to form again annually ; hence all the greater necessity for pru- 

 dence and caution in maintaining the existing woodlands. All 

 such protective forests are everywhere on the continent under the 

 direct protection, supervision, and treatment of the State Forest 

 Department. 



C. HOAR-FROST, ICE, HAIL. 

 21. Damage done ~by the Same. 



Accumulations of pendent ice on the branches and twigs also 

 occur less frequently in lower-lying tracts than at higher elev* 

 tions, and take place principally on northern and eastern exposui 

 as they are mostly produced by cold north and east winds. Tl 

 species chiefly exposed to danger from this cause are the evergr* 

 conifers, especially the Scots Pine, with its long foliage affordinj 

 an easy foot-hold on which the ice may accumulate, and its britt 

 branches, little able to resist the weight tending to snap them oi 

 Among broad-leaved species the brittle Alder is the princi] 

 sufferer, and next to that perhaps the younger classes of Of 

 standards in copse, when the crowns are still covered with tl 

 dead, dry foliage. Semi-mature crops, and those approachii 

 towards maturity, are more apt to be damaged than the younj 

 age-classes; whilst isolated trees, young standards in copse, old 

 trees retained throughout a second period of rotation, and trees at 

 the edges of the woods, offer more opportunities for the accumula- 

 tion of ice, and consequently suffer more by reason of it, than 

 regular crops growing in close canopy. 



