CHAPTER VII. 



NATURAL REGENERATION BY SEED- 



We know that in natural regeneration by seed the new crop 

 must spring up exclusively or almost exclusively from self-sown 

 seed. Now this seed may come either (i) from trees standing im- 

 mediately overhead, or (ii) from trees standing outside the area to 

 be sown, or (iii) from trees standing both inside and outside that 

 area. Except in an isolated wood that is so small as to be com- 

 pletely worked over in a single operation, the first case can, strictly 

 speaking, never occur, since the trees surrounding the area to be 

 regenerated must necessarily contribute a less or greater proportion 

 of the seeds falling upon it. Hence the first and third cases must 

 be considered together. 



When the ground is to be sown with seed coming in from out- 

 side, the regeneration felling, i. e. the felling, of which the imme- 

 diate result is the production of the new crop, will be a clear one 

 or only a partial one according as the young crop can dispense 

 with, or requires, being nursed ; whereas, if the parent trees stand 

 overhead, that felling must necessarily be partial, and the original 

 crop can be entirely removed only when the new generation has 

 been completely obtained. We thus have, broadly speaking, two 

 principal modes of obtaining natural regeneration by seed, viz. (a) 

 by means of clear fellings, when the original crop is required 

 neither as parent nor nurse, and (6) by means of partial fellings 

 when the original crop is both parent and nurse, or at least nurse. 



Now clear fellings may be made (i) over large areas of irregular 

 shape, or (ii) in long narrow bands, or (iii) over very limited areas 

 (forming gaps or wells in the forest), thus giving rise to three dis- 

 tinct methods of regenerating by self-sown seed, which we may 

 term respectively the method of clearings, the method of cleared 

 lines and the well method. Partial fellings, on the other hand, may 

 either (i) be made in a uniform manner over the entire area 

 to be regenerated, or (ii) observe a strict uniformity only over 

 homogeneous portions (groups) of that area, each separate portion 

 being treated on its own merits, or (iii) be executed uniformly 



