28 ELEMENTS OF SYLVICULTURE. 



In the open cutting the intervals between the 

 crowns may vary from seven to twenty feet. 



The close cutting is the one which has most fre- 

 quently to he employed. It is absolutely required 

 in each of the following cases : when the seed is 

 heavy and cannot be carried away far from the foot 

 of the parent tree ; when the constitution of the 

 young plant is delicate ; when the soil is liable to 

 become choked with luxuriant grass, or to be dried 

 up ; when the operation is performed on the edge of 

 the forest, or in localities exposed to the wind. For 

 under these various circumstances we run the risk 

 of an incomplete sowing of the ground, or the non- 

 germination of the seed, or the dying off of the young 

 plants for want of shelter, or the blowing down of 

 the reserves either before they have sown the ground 

 or before the young seedlings can do without 

 shelter. 



It is only when all the opposite conditions are 

 found together, that the primary cutting can be 

 made more or less open. In other words, the close 

 cutting is the rule, the open one the exception. 



When choosing the reserves, we must evidently 

 select vigorous trees which have a lofty bole and a 

 wide-spreading crown. It is far more important to 

 secure an equal distribution of foliage than a regular 

 arrangement of stems ; and this should be our chief 

 object. A close cutting that has been judiciously 

 made should allow the sunlight to reach the ground 

 not in large patches, but sifted as it were between 

 the leaves as through a sieve. 



The object in selecting reserves with a lofty bole 



