THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF WORKING PLANS 221 



This is supplemented by a general forest description for 

 the entire area, covering all of the forest conditions — natural, 

 legal, political, economic, commercial, fmancial, and adminis- 

 trative, including personnel. 



Determination of the Cut is for a decade in advance. The 

 allowed cut is divided into final cuttings, thinnings, and acci- 

 dental cuttings. The basis of regulation is the normal periodic 

 cutting area. If the conditions are regular this is adhered to 

 as strictly as possible. Often there are large. amounts of over- 

 mature timber, as, e.g., in the \argin forests of the Bukowina 

 mentioned in foot-note preceding, where with a 120-year rota- 

 tion the stands over 100 years old aggregate 116,592 hectares 

 instead of the normal (based on age-class relation) of 33,221 

 hectares; an excess of 83,371 hectares.* In these overmature 

 stands the increment merely offsets the decay and their inter- 

 est yield on the investment is nil. To substitute for them 

 young, thriftily growing stands was axiomatic, but required 

 cutting in excess of the normally allowed area. The amount 

 of excess permissible was fixed on the following three considera- 

 tions: (i) Not so great that reproduction, natural or artificial, 

 cannot keep pace with the cutting, and so imperil the con- 

 tinuity of the forest; (2) not so great as to depress prices by 

 glutting the market and thus losing all the financial advantage 

 gained by stimulated increment; (3) not so great as to cause 

 too serious disturbances of the sustained yield. These con- 

 siderations were met by a sHding scale of gradually approaching 

 the normal as follows: In the I period of twenty years 1.5 the 

 normal area can be cut (sometimes 1.6 in the first decade, 1.4 

 in the second decade); in the II period of twenty years 1.3 

 of the normal area can be cut; in the III period of twenty 

 years 1.2 of the normal can be cut, and thenceforth approx- 

 imately the normal amount only is to be cut. During the decade 

 ending 1910 the average annual cutting area in the Bukowina 



* " Die Forstwirtschaft und ihre Industrien . . , im Herzogthume 

 Bukowina," by E. Guzman, Vienna, 1901. 



