104 ELEMENTS OF SYLVICULTURE. 



SPRUCE FIR. Although the young spruce fir 

 generally avoids heat, it only comes up well on the 

 edge of the forest, and in rather open spots where 

 the light is sufficiently abundant. Crops of this tree 

 form an exceedingly dense canopy and the removal 

 of trees one by one would not produce sufficiently 

 large gaps to ensure the maintenance of seedlings. 

 Hence three or four trees must be removed from the 

 same point ; only care must be taken that these 

 small gaps are not situated too near to each other, 

 because when the spruce fir grows in leaf-canopy, its 

 roots are short as well as superficial, and it would be 

 extremely dangerous to allow access to the wind. 



Attempts have at times been made to apply the 

 method of thinnings to the spruce fir. "Without 

 denying that this may be possible in well sheltered 

 localities, I am of opinion that it is always very rash 

 to do so, at least in France. For this tree exclusively 

 inhabits mountains and even high mountains (it is 

 seldom found naturally in the Vosges, becomes more 

 abundant on the higher plateaux of the Jura, and 

 is only common in the Alps). In all these situations 

 it is exposed to violent winds, which it cannot resist 

 when it has grown up in dense canopy, and is then 

 isolated. Now the regular regeneration cuttings 

 always imply the idea of interrupting the stock over 

 rather wide areas at a time. 



In Switzerland, where the spruce fir is very abun- 

 dant and is found rather low down towards the 

 plains, a special method has been sometimes adopted. 

 The forest is divided into several working circles, or 

 divisions, and a very narrow clear cutting is made in 



