THE SELECTION METHOD. 97 



According to the special requirements of each 

 species, its constitution, and its facility of with- 

 standing the action of cover for a longer or shorter 

 period, the trees are to be felled singly or in 

 small groups of three, four, up to seven or eight. 

 The result is that high forests, worked on the 

 selection method, present a confused collection 

 of trees of all ages and sizes, or a patchwork of 

 small, almost uniform clumps scattered about in 

 no definite order. This condition of things occurs 

 only when the annual yield is fairly equal to 

 the annual sum of production. If the former is 

 less, then the forest gets gradually filled up with 

 old trees, and the younger stages of growth almost 

 cease to exist, while if the annual yield exceeds the 

 sum of production, the stock again tends to become 

 uniform, but this time with the younger stages 

 of growth. Occasionally, too, the exploitations 

 restricted to the wants of local markets by the diffi- 

 culty of exporting the produce to any distance, have 

 given rise to forests in which old trees are exceed- 

 ingly numerous, presenting an appearance of old 

 quasi-regular high forest. But this condition of 

 things is now seldom to be met with ; as a rule, 

 improved lines of export have enabled this accu- 

 mulated wealth to be realised ; at times the annual 

 production of the forest has even been exceeded, 

 and exploitable timber is no longer found in suffi- 

 cient quantity. Strong winds have in some cases 

 regularised the appearance of the forest, by blowing 

 down all the tall trees. 



VALUE OF THE SELECTION METHOD. From what 



