330 



THE FORESTS OF UPPER INDIA 



Natural distri- 

 bution of trees 

 of all ages and 

 in groups. 



Calamities of 

 fire remedied 

 by Nature. 



Great age of 

 naturally- 

 grown timber. 



prematurely aged, while the timber is badly grown and worthless, 

 as in British-managed plantations. 



In Nature we find all ages growing together on the same ground, 

 but mostly groups of different ages, according as the seedlings 

 have sprung where the seeds fell from the parent standards and 

 were scattered by the wind. Thus the saplings have been 

 forced up tall and straight in clusters, and never thinned out at 

 all. The stronger individuals overtop the weaker and crush 

 them, when they die and wither, not seeing the sky. This 

 secures straight, clean boles, free from knots ; and all the trees 

 remaining to grow to maturity are master trees, not weaklings. 

 The result is slowly grown, sound timber, very different to the 

 quickly grown, coarse, and unsound stuff found in mixed planta- 

 tions, which have been thinned out as if carefully to secure 

 branching heads and the most rapid and unhealthy incre- 

 ment. 



This is the normal method of renewal, and the almost 

 universal one ; but as amongst human races calamities may 

 come and sweep away the whole population, so an entire forest 

 may be burnt down. This is a very frequent occurrence in the 

 Rocky Mountains, owing to the climate and the negligence and 

 interference of men. Nature provides even here a remedy. The 

 seeds which have remained in the ground begin to germinate 

 when they get the sun, and a complete new crop springs like a 

 carpet from the soil. Whether the seed always remains in the 

 soil or is transported from adjoining forests by the wind is not 

 determined, but I have seen the process going on over large areas 

 of spruce and silver fir and pine in the Rocky Mountains, the 

 seedling trees springing up amongst the fallen stems of the 

 previous growth so closely together (twenty or thirty to the square 

 yard) that the thicket was absolutely impenetrable to man or beast. 

 Such self-renovated forests are abundant in Western America, and 

 are easily known by the age of the trees being all alike. They 

 produce the most excellent timber when of mature age. The 

 tall trees stand like pillars, perfect cylinders, without branches, 

 though never thinned by the axe of man. Such timber takes a 

 long time to mature, and is of the best quality. 



In Corsica, where some pine forests have escaped destruction 

 from their inaccessibility, there are still some trees, said to be 



