34 REGIME 



be minimised by preserving a plentiful stock of standards, but in 

 revenge, such standards run the risk of serious injury each time 

 they are isolated by the periodical exploitation of the underwood. 



To recapitulate, reasons derived from a consideration of cultural 

 requirements are at times of themselves strong enough to neces- 

 sitate the adoption of the High Forest Regime. This is first of 

 all the case in conifer forests, and next in those of broad-leaved 

 species in which the soil is unfertile and extremes of climate pre- 

 vail. But more often such reasons recommend the adoption of the 

 one or the other Regime indifferently, and can only be considered 

 in connection with the economic requirements to be satisfied ; and 

 in that case they should govern chiefly the method of treatment. 

 The choice of Regime is seldom left to us, but we are constantly 

 called upon to apply it, once it is made. It is, therefore, very im- 

 portant to know the ^advantages and disadvantages attaching to 

 each Regime in any given forest, so as to be able to turn the first 

 to account audminimse the second when we step in to carry out 

 the prescriptions of the Organisation Project. A study of the Regimes 

 and their results is thus extremely useful, whether we have to draw 

 up an Organisation Project or only to carry it out as executive mem- 

 bers of the Forest Hierarchy. 



SECTION II. 

 Economic Requirements, 



The subject of this section, like the one we have just quitted, 

 may possess more importance for one class of forests than for 

 another, but its absolute importance is always great and of the 

 first order. It is generally a consideration of these requirements that 

 finally determines, in any given case, the choice of the Regime and 

 the age for exploitation. 



§ 1. Utility of the produce. 



The utility of the produce obtained in each case varies with the 

 hature. Condition, and properties of the wood composing it. So far 

 as their nature is concerned, ligneous products are not simply 

 either firewood or timber. In each of these two great classes, espe- 



