KULES FOR LOCATING CUTTINGS. 189 



(iv.) In hill forests the cuttings should begin at 

 the bottom. 



(v.) In hill forests, and in general where dangerous 

 winds prevail, a cutting ought to be long and narrow 

 in form, and have its longest side perpendicular to 

 the direction of the winds.X 



These rules are not an of equal importance : the 

 first two are universally applicable, the remaining 

 three chiefly in mountainous districts, nor can they 

 all be observed at one and the same time. In each 

 case it is the duty of the forester first to appreciate 

 local conditions, and then to apply that rule which he 

 considers the most urgent, at the same time that he 

 provides against the dangers which might follow 

 from the non-observance of the rest. The reader 

 will best judge of the relative utility of these rules 

 by studying the reasons which have dictated them. 



RULE I. This rule is the most important of all, 

 not only on account of the object it endeavours di- 

 rectly to attain, but because the application of the 

 others is impossible without it. Taken by itself, it 

 contributes in the first place to obtain the best vege- 

 tation possible, for it is manifestly better that two 

 contiguous crops should be of nearly the same height ; 

 they enjoy thus all the advantages of an unbroken 

 leaf-canopy, and the lower crop has nothing to fear 

 from the immediate neighbourhood of the taller one. 

 When the different cuttings follow each other in 

 their order of date, the various crops which grow 

 upon them, rise insensibly one above the other from 

 the youngest to the oldest, without any one of them 

 hampering the free growth of its neighbour. On 



