effect of the factors of production. 27 



4. Effect of the Factors of Production. 



Natural forces, capital and labour produce efiects according 

 to the proportion in which they are applied to a locality. Under 

 the action of natural forces only, the effects are generally of 

 moderate intensity ; with the addition of capital and labour the 

 intensity of management increases. Accordingly, a considerable 

 number of methods of treatment, or silvicultural systems, have 

 been evolved in the course of time, their intensity increasing in 

 the proportion of capital and labour being added to natural 

 forces. 



The most primitive form is that represented in primeval 

 forest, where some trees are cut for utihzation, while others die, 

 are thrown by wind, or killed by fire or disease. The restocking 

 of clear spaces is left to nature. Gradually man took steps to 

 regulate the selection of trees to be cut with a view to assisting 

 and accelerating regeneration by natural means. Thus what is 

 known to foresters as the regulated " Selection System " came into 

 existence. 



Further changes were introduced with a view to concentrating 

 the work on one part of the area at a time and to separating the 

 age classes and establishing them on separate areas, leading to 

 the system known as the " Compartment or Uniform System." 

 Subsequently the annual or periodic coupes were further reduced to 

 strips or to groups, known as the " Strip and the Group Systems." 

 In all these systems regeneration may be by natural or artificial 

 means, or by the two combined. 



A different method is that of " Coppice Woods," where regenera- 

 tion is effected by shoots which spring from the stools after the 

 wood has been cut over. The system is appUcable only to species 

 which produce a full crop of stool shoots or root suckers. By 

 combining the coppice system with seedling forest, a combination 

 system is produced known as the " Coppice with Standards 

 System " (or stored coppice). 



The desirability of the several systems depends on local 

 conditions and the objects which the proprietor has in view. 

 When small material is required, the coppice system may be 

 indicated ; where also a limited amount of timber is required, 

 the coppice with standards system may be adopted ; when 

 the largest possible quantity of high-class timber is wanted, one 



