UNDERFELLING 121 



The only fellings undertaken were made on what is 

 known as the selection system. Only sound logs were 

 sold, the oldest trees being selected here and there 

 in the forest for the purpose. Only small openings 

 were made in the canopy by the removal of these 

 trees ; the forest was thus kept too dense, and young 

 trees, with the exception of spruce, had not sufhcient 

 light to enable them to develop and take the place 

 of the old ones removed. Under the system the spruce 

 came in and occupied soils which should have been 

 confined to the Scots pine only. The idea underlying 

 this method of felHng was " to spare the forest," i.e. 

 that to underfell was good sylviculture ; whereas, to 

 carry over from year to year a preponderance of 

 mature and over-mature growing stock is neither good 

 sylviculture nor sound forest finance. Recently this 

 system has been modified by the order that cleanings 

 should be made in the cutting areas when the old trees 

 are selected and felled. The chief point for our pur- 

 pose in this management of the State areas is that, as 

 the forests have been admittedly underfelled in the 

 past, they must contain a considerable preponder- 

 ance of old growing stock, i.e. of mature tihiber ready 

 for the axe — timber which it would be in the interest 

 of the forests themselves to remove, and which should 

 prove a great asset to the Allies at this juncture. 



The Finland Forestry Department was created in 

 1863, but owing to the almost total absence of timber 

 sales from the forests the progress of the new Depart- 

 ment was very slow. The protection of the forests 

 formed its chief work and proved most necessary. 

 The people, as has been the case in most other coun- 



