104 NATURAL REGENERATION 



give, without undue delay, all necessary care to the existing plantations, to complete 

 them where necessary, and make sure of the transformation of the compartments of the 

 first group during the period (30 years). 



"B. — Improvement cuttings. The compartments of the second group shall be 

 thinned twice during the period of 30 years, or once every 15 years. 



"1. — Transformation cuttings. The first two cuttings (transformation) shall aim 

 to give to the existing plantation what is considered a sufficient number of trees to pro- 

 tect the restocked areas, which shall be made after the cutting, provided that is neces- 

 sary. 



"The second two cuttings shall remove the overmature material that remains stand- 

 ing so that each compartment of the first group shall be completely converted into 

 conifer high forest by 1939. 



"From 1910 to 1939 all the restocking shall be done exclusively in the compartments 

 of the first group. Spruce should be used, as heretofore, for i)lanting since it has given 

 excellent results; on the poorer soils, however, it might be well to try out Austrian pine 

 and Scotch pine. 



"2. — hnprovement cuttings. These shall be carefully executed and shall consist of: 

 (1) Extraction of fir most liable to rot and old oak or beech of poor quality that has 

 become useless . . . general development of existing conifer poles; (2) thinnings in 

 the poles where they are too thick, and cleanings in the thickets and saplings to assist 

 the more valuable species, and to free them . . . removal of crooked stems and dead 

 trees; (3) in the pole stands where the broadleaves dominate, the best beech should be 

 resowed and, so far as possible, the conifers of all ages." 



The best-known example of a conversion attempted in the United 

 States is found under the direction of the Yale Forest School. Accord- 

 ing to a statement issued by the school: 



"The general plan of management for Maltby Park may be summarized as follows: 

 It is handled in conjunction with other forest lands owned by the New Haven Water 

 Company, the total area being in the neighborhood of 9,000 acres. The hardwood 

 stands will be managed on some modification of the shelterwood method, such as the 

 polewood coppice system, on a rotation between 60 and SO years. Several problems in 

 connection with this method remain to be solved, such, for example, as the influence of 

 sprouts which start after thinnings, on seedling reproduction which later on it is desired to 

 secure. 



"Where conifers have been underplanted the hardwoods will eventually be removed, 

 and a coniferous or mixed stand obtained. It is believed that, on account of the rela- 

 tively slow growth and low yield per acre of the hardwood species, better financial re- 

 sults could be obtained by converting all the hardwood stand to coniferous forest but, 

 until approximately 2,000 acres of open land on other parts of the holdings are planted, 

 this policy will not be adopted." 



Under the condition existing at Maltby Park probably even better 

 silvicultural results would have been secured if the hardwoods had been 

 cut more heavily and if more money had been spent in freeing the 

 plantations suppressed by the coppice sprouts. The value of the land as 

 watershed would not have suffered because the area under conversion 

 comprised only a small per cent of the drainage area. 



