ALLOCATION OF FELLINGS. 117 



caused by cover over a narrow strip of a few yards is slight ; as a 

 rule, while the former are always clearly perceptible, the latter is 

 not noticed at all. This was not the place to insist on that fact, were 

 it not for the necessity of proving beyond dispute- the general 

 utility of shelter in Forest Conservation. This utility is more or 

 less great in simple copses according ta their situation ; it is very 

 great as regards the standards of compound copses. In high forests 

 the presence of shelter is a necessity for the Regeneration Coupes ; 

 in conifer forests it is the first condition for successful reproduction 

 both because it prevents the reserved trees from being blown down 

 and because it favours the sowing of the ground and the protection 

 of the soil. At high elevations the necessity of shelter is so great 

 that it renders the consideration of all other requisite conditions 

 entirely secondary ; there the presence of constant shelter becomes 

 necessary to the very existence of the forest, and this circamstance 

 may necssitate the adoption of the Selection System, when 

 the configuration of the ground alone does not afford the required 

 shelter. 



Thus the observance of the Third Rule for locating coupes 

 is obligatory under the most various circumstances. In applying it, 

 each independent, naturally sheltered portion of the Working Circle 

 should be considered separately. It is rarely necessary to take up 

 the whole of the Working Circle en bloc, in such a manner as to be 

 unable to stop the exploitations at some one spot in order to resume 

 them at another. But it mus*; be observed that the continued 

 neglect of this Rule can only be repaired with the utmost difficulty. 

 Indeed it might happen that the only way to effect it would be 

 to take up the coupes in the reverse order at the next series of 

 exploitations, a circumstance which the succession of the age 

 classes on the ground would nearly always render impossible. 



The Fourth and Fifth Rules for locating coupes refer solely 

 to hill forests. The former directs that all exploitations on sloping 

 grouna shall begin at the bottom and work successively upwards. 

 The reason of this is, that in hilly country the effects of the wind 

 on forests become more dansrerous as the elevation increases on the 



O 



same slope. By cutting from the bottom upwards, the portions of 

 the forest under regeneration are protected by the standing canopied 

 mass above it, while they at the same time receive the seed shed by 



