108 NOTES ON FORESTRY. 



And by this arrangement we should cut only the 

 first 25,000 acres below maturity, and the last 

 40,000 acres above the recognised period of ma- 

 turity, which may or may not be a disadvantage, 

 according to the correctness of the data on which 

 the period of rotation has been fixed. 



If the preponderance of area had been of trees 

 of the fourth and fifth periods, instead of the 

 second and third periods, and the desirability of 

 preserving each block to maturity fully recognised, 

 the whole area carrying timber saleable at a profit 

 might be sharply thinned through during the 

 twenty years of rest, without prejudice to the 

 ultimate crop, especially with deciduous trees, but 

 only in the event of the forest being fully stocked ; 

 for, if fellings had already been so excessive, 

 that, supplemented by fires which destroyed their 

 seedlings, grass and rank undergrowth had got 

 possession of the forest floor, our care should be 

 to leave every tree until the branches had again 

 closed, that the undergrowth might be destroyed, 

 and the forest floor again fitted for tree reproduc- 

 tion. No prejudicial undergrowth can exist in a 

 close forest. 



It need hardly be pointed out that, as the trees 

 in each block vary twenty years in age, it will 

 generally be desirable to cut out the oldest first, 

 by which means all are felled at an uniform age ; 



