350 NATURAL REGENERATION BY SEED. 



the stage of rapid upward growth, are out of all danger from pre- 

 vailing injurious weather influences, and can join crowns and close 

 over the ground within the next two or three years ; and it should 

 never be delayed until they have got beyond the early sapling 

 stage, otherwise the damage caused by the felling and export opera- 

 tions would be so great as to entail considerable loss of production 

 and heavy expenditure on restoration operations. The terms " the 

 great body of the seedlings " have been used advisedly, for the 

 conditions of vegetation can never be so uniform as to justify us in 

 expecting every point of the coupe to become completely stocked 

 with seedlings all in one and the same stage of growth. The pre- 

 sence of small scattered blanks or incompletely stocked places or 

 patches of younger growth ought never to be allowed to delay the 

 final felling, if the rest of the new generation demands it. This 

 felling will thus generally follow from 10 to 20 years after the 

 seed-felling. 



V. What to remove in the after-fellings. 



In a general manner it "may be laid down that whatever trees 

 interfere with the growth of the seedlings or are not required 

 for their protection should be removed. But, in actual practice, 

 this general rule is subject to certain qualifications imposed by 

 the condition of the parent crop and the nature of the soil, 

 climate and species. All the circumstances which demanded a 

 dark seed coupe will also prevail to enjoin moderation in the after- 

 fellings. If the interests of the parent crop or the preservation 

 of the soil or the necessity of keeping out drought and climatic 

 extremes require it, the seedlings must, for the time being at 

 least, be sacrificed to the extent of being temporarily kept back, 

 without however actually suffering in their vitality. 



Usually it is over the strongest and weakest seedlings rather 

 than over those of average size and vigour that the leaf-canopy 

 will require to be opened out over the first, in order to allow them 

 to continue to develop rapidly and close up quickly over the 

 ground, also because their greater vigour proves their greater har- 

 dihood ; over the second, in order to save them from immediate 

 certain death. 



Provided the safety of the seedlings and of the parent crop and 

 the preservation of the soil are not thereby endangered, all trees 

 that have ceased to increase in value must be taken out. Such 

 will include all dead, unsound and badly mis-shapen trees, those in 

 their decline, and those which have ceased to make any appreciable 



