36 FORESTRY IX NEW ENGLAND 



first resembles the seed cutting in the shelterwood system and 

 is intended to get seedHng reproduction started. About 30 to 

 40 per cent of the volume is taken out, the poorest specimens 

 being cut. Where the stand is composed of species like chestnut, 

 which will sprout well even on an eighty-year rotation, there is 

 less need to secure seedling reproduction and the seed cutting 

 can be very Hght.^ Where trees Hke white oak, which sprouts 

 poorly at sixty to eighty years, occur the seed cutting must be 

 made heavy enough to encourage complete seedling reproduction. 

 Five to ten years after the seed cutting, or as soon as good seed- 

 ling reproduction is established and has secured a few years' 

 start, the remainder of the stand is removed in the final cutting. 

 Sprouts at once start and with the seedlings on the ground 

 develop a mixed stand of seedlings and sprouts. 



1 Even in stands where at eighty years every stump will sprout, the stumps are 

 relatively so far apart that the young sprouts do not form a close stand, and a 

 mixture of seedlings is needed to grow clear-bodied trees. 



