MATXTEXAXCE OF THE SELKCTIOX METHOD. 175 



neighbours, conditions eminently favorable to the production of 

 seedlings. Moreover the soil as well as the seedlings thus produced 

 are constantly protected, another point in favour of the system. 

 Thus it is not simply a single special Period, or a certain definite 

 number of years that is allotted for the production of seedliugs, but 

 ages without limit ; in other words every portion of a foreist worked 

 by Selection is, so to say, perpetually under regeneration. 



It is now easy to understand how essentially conservative a 

 method of treatment the Selection Method is, on the sole condition 

 that it is worked in a spirit of moderation and that it removes none 

 but really mature trees. The trees of such forests receive indivi- 

 dual attention, and reproduction is assured as much as it can ever 

 be. It is for this reason that Working by Selection has to be 

 maintained in so many cases. 



The first of these cases is that of forests conserved with a view 

 to affording protection and shelter. Such forests are scarcely met 

 with any where but in the wildest localities, in mountainous regions, 

 in such places, for instance, as where landslips are threatened, aval- 

 anches are to be dreaded, the formation of mountain torrents to be 

 prevented, and dangerous winds to be tempered or kept out alto- 

 gether. Thus it is immediately above a village overhung by an 

 abrupt slope or a canton exposed to avalanches, or it is at the point 

 at which all the waters of a mountain-side collect to precipitate 

 themselves into the valley below, or in a high gorge where the wind 

 rushes violently through, that the Selection Method of working 

 must be constantly maintained. Such localities are always well 

 defined ; they are rather single cantons than large extensive tracts. 

 The preservation of the forest there is all the more necessary, in- 

 asmuch as it is often^very difficult to restore it when once it has 

 disappeared. 



The second case ingwhich it is expedient to continue the Selec- 

 tion System is that of^those forests, in which reproduction is un- 

 certain or so slow that it caunot be depended upon to recrop or 

 regenerate any portion of such forests within a given time. The 

 cause of this unsatisfactory condition is to be traced to the soil and 

 to the climate. Thus in a climate where extremes of heat or cold 

 prevail, or where sliclter^against the severity of dangerous winds is 



