80 ELEMENTS OF SYLVICULTUKE. 



made out of season, or out of reason. So I cannot 

 lay too much stress on this advice, viz., after having 

 conducted the regeneration with great caution, to 

 wait until the stock has reached the higher limit of 

 the low pole stage before beginning the periodical 

 thinnings ; up to that point, to take out nothing but 

 completely decaying trees, if their value is likely to 

 exceed the cost of exploitation ; and always to pre- 

 serve, as most invaluable, poles that are simply 

 suppressed. 



My own private opinion is that it is even frequently 

 advisable to work the silver fir forests on what is 

 known as the selection method ; struck with its dis- 

 advantages, people have more or less lost sight of 

 the real advantages obtained by this method of 

 working high forests when it is applied in a spirit of 

 moderation, and they have not sufficiently remem- 

 bered the difficulty of applying the method of thin- 

 nings in a mountainous country. This is, however, 

 a question that will be treated of further on. 



VIII. TREATMENT OF BEECH AND SILVER FIR 

 MIXED. 



The beech is found naturally associated with 

 the silver fir, and a study of their mixed growth 

 shows the great advantages that always attend it, 

 and proves the necessity of re-establishing it wher- 

 ever it has disappeared. 



The two trees are found in the same soils ; their 

 habitats coincide in a certain zone, though the 

 beech extends down into the plains, while in the 



