20 FORESTRY IN POLAND. 



in winch all the trees on a given area were felled with the 

 exception of some left to bear seed, and to afford shade 

 and shelter to seedlings. The areas so exploited frequently 

 succeeded each other side by side in regular progression. 

 Under the scientific method, the Fachwerke Method, or 

 Methode des Compartiments, plots or patches of forest like to 

 each other, but situated apart, are treated as if they 

 formed a continuous wood, and are treated collectively as 

 were the different areas in exploitation a tire et aire. 



Where Jardinage is followed we have trees of varied 

 ages growing confusedly mixed together, and injuring one 

 another, the older and taller overgrowing the younger and 

 impeding their growth, and the older becoming straggling 

 and knotty, and of a height inferior to what they attained 

 when they were more serried, while they are also less able 

 to withstand the storm ; and many, young and old alike, 

 often become diseased, rarely appear well conditioned, 

 and not unfrequently perish prematurely. Though some 

 trees withstand and surmount all these evils, the product 

 of a forest so treated is in a given time inferior both in 

 quantity and in quality to what it might have been ; and 

 there is a tendency in the method of management to convert 

 the forest into a scrub, and ultimately to destroy it altogether. 



About the middle of the sixteenth century it began to 

 be realised that the system followed had in it inherent 

 defects, and these such as could scarcely be eradicated by 

 a.ny attempted improvement to which it'could be subjected. 

 But it was thought that the conservation of the forests 

 might be assured by continuous reproduction if the fellings 

 were confined to one portion of the forest, throughout one 

 year, or a series of years, more or less prolonged, during 

 which the trees growing elsewhere should be allowed un- 

 disturbed growth ; while this should be allowed to recover 

 itself during the much more lengthened period which 

 would be required to go over not one but all of the other 

 divisions of the forest or woodlands with which it was 

 connected, and if necessary the extension of this to other 

 forests or other woodlands. 



