DAMAGE CAUSED BY AERIAL CURRENTS. 39 



The Fall of mature Crops should always be begun from the side 

 opposite to the direction of the prevailing winds ; as has already been 

 remarked, the most frequent and violent stormy winds come from 

 west, north-west, and south-west, so that the annual falls should be 

 commenced on the east side, and conducted in such manner that 

 the line of clearance runs north and south (or from north-west to 

 south-west), the succession of annual falls advancing gradually in 

 the direction of the prevailing wind, under the lee and protection 



! of the close canopied crops of slightly younger age. For coniferous 

 forests especially, attention to this rule is of essential importance. 

 Further, whilst harvesting mature timber crops, care should be 

 taken to avoid the sudden exposure of younger crops that have hitherto 

 lain in their lee, but are of an age liable to be damaged by storms. 

 In order to obtain a properly regulated and judicious allocation of 

 the successive annual falls of timber, it is not infrequently neces- 

 sary to delay the utilisation of older crops, and harvest younger 

 ones somewhat prematurely when the Working Plan is formed 

 and being worked for the first time. 



One method of making such younger crops independent of the 

 protection of older crops lying to windward of them, is the system 

 of cutting free or strengthening, extensively practised in the Thtiringer 

 Wald. This consists in making a clear fall of timber in the older 

 crop along a narrow strip from 33 to 50 feet broad, drawn between 

 the sheltering wood and the younger one protected by it, and at 



i right angles to the direction of the prevailing storms ; the object 

 is here to afford the younger crop the opportunity of developing a 

 stronger root- system and more branching growth of the trees near 

 the edge, and of thus naturally forming a protective belt strong 

 enough to resist successfully the effects of stormy winds when the 



older crop is cleared away. An essential condition for the success 

 of this system of cutting young woods free is that it must take 

 place during the pole-forest stage of growth, whilst the younger 

 crop is still endowed with the capacity of clothing itself with a 

 thicker mantle of foliage. The cleared strip in the older crop 

 should be at once replanted, so as likewise to form an artificial 



I can be protected against storms by judicious allocation of the annual falls and arrange- 

 j ment of the crops, whilst in the latter case there are three sides to protect, namely 



on the west, south, and north. This proposal, which is approved of by Borggreve 

 ! in his work on the Management of Forests, is quite rational, but unfortunately comes 



too late to be applied in the case of any of the forests which have already been sub- 

 I divided and formed into compartments under the old system. 



