490 REARING OP THE ESTABLISHED CROP. 



is an infinitude of intermediate stages of regeneration. 



If the market and the state of the finances admit of it, we may, 

 according to the requirements of the case, either establish or com- 

 plete the new generation by sowing or planting and clear away all 

 the old stock, or we may adopt any of the methods of natural rege- 

 neration described in Book II. On the other hand, if such whole- 

 sale action is not possible, it will at any rate be our duty to remove, 

 as quickly as the condition of the market and the accessibility of 

 the forest will allow, every portion of the unsound, unhealthy and 

 otherwise inferior portion of the stock wherever it can at once be 

 replaced by sound, healthy and valuable growth. In other and 

 briefer words, we must effect IMPROVEMENT FELLINGS. Thus an 

 improvement felling may be defined as an operation made in heavily 

 damaged forests with the object of removing from them, as quickly 

 as practicable, all unsound, deteriorating, knotty, inferior or harm- 

 ful trees, while at [the same time making the most of existing 

 material, in order to obtain as full a crop as possible composed 

 principally of healthy, vigorous growing trees of valuable species. 



It is thus evident that an improvement felling is not an elemen- 

 tary operation of a special kind not yet described in this Manual,, 

 but is essentially a composite one combining in itself the attributes 

 and objects of every kind of felling already treated of. At points 

 where utilisable advance growth exists, it will assume the character 

 of an after-felling or of a jardinage cutting. Where the crop ia 

 too dense, it will become a preparatory felling or a thinning or a 

 cleaning according to the age of the component individuals. In 

 other places it may partake of the nature of a seed-felling. Where 

 frost and other dangerous atmospheric influences are not to be 

 feared and the soil cannot suffer from exposure, there a more or 

 less large clearing may be made, if the whole of the standing 

 stock is unsound or deteriorating and early regeneration is certain. 

 In such places the younger individuals, capable of throwing up 

 good coppice shoots, should be carefully cut back. Young damaged 

 stems of valuable species should also be cut back, where the re- 

 growth from them would improve the constitution of the crop. In 

 frosty localities, where the forest is open, it is useless to attempt 

 any cutting back, as the new shoots are bound to get frost-bitten in 

 their turn and in the end prove no better than the original indivi- 

 duals. In such places the only resource left is to allow the stand- 

 ing stock to gradually make its way up and ultimately form suffi- 

 cient cover and shelter for new reproduction from seed. Crowded 

 advance growth may have to be cut back or thinned out. In all 



