APPLICATION OF THE SELECTION METHOD. 107 



bodies corporate, &c.), trees that have reached 

 maturity ; in private forests all sound trees above 

 a fixed minimum girth, including those that are 

 dead or completely decaying or unsound. The 

 number of trees removed will vary with the special 

 requirements of each kind, for each of which it will 

 be a constant figure. This is the rule laid down in 

 the old instructions for working the silver fir forests 

 of the Jura and Vosges ; it is besides no more 

 than the intelligent application of Article 72 of the 

 Statute of 1827, in which the word " age " stands 

 for " condition of growth." This method of fixing 

 the annual yield possesses moreover the great advan- 

 tage that it enables one constantly to aim at 

 bringing the forest into any condition desired, and 

 it would be unreasonable to expect to obtain by the 

 selection method a more vigorously steady yield than 

 we get from coppice with standards, in which the 

 annual yield is based on area with all its chances of 

 error. 



As it is the selection method that has to be kept 

 up, no thinnings must be made. For in thinnings, 

 the suppressed trees are removed, and thus the stock 

 must necessarily become regular. But short trees 

 may be slightly pruned when their lower branches 

 overtop a well formed underwood. 



In the case of the silver fir, and more especially in 

 that of the spruce fir, it will be advisable to cut 

 away the dead branches which remain a long while 

 on the bole before falling off. They form a sort of 

 bolt in the wood that has no connection with the 

 adjoining parts, and, when the timber is sawn up, 



