176 IfAINTENAXOE OF THE SELECTION METHOD. 



wanting, it takes a very long time for seedlia;rs to make their ap- 

 pearance; and when once they do germinate, the new crop grows 

 very slowly, and takes a very long time to' join- their crowns and 

 close over the ground. The time required for so desirable a con- 

 summation to take place is often quite unlimited ; it left to itself 

 the forest must of course eventually reproduce itself, but this per- 

 haps not until after a whole century has elapsed. Such is the case 

 towards the superior limit of arborescent vegetation, and also on 

 elevated plateaux, on mountain ridges, although of no great height, 

 and on the edges of a forest continually struck by the wind. 

 Similarly, on soil that is barrert either on account of its rocky- 

 nature or owing to its being scarped, it would sometimes be vain 

 to expect a complete sowing oi the ground ; if the- trees are re- 

 moved before a young growth is ready under them to take their 

 place, the forest is exposed to certain denudation. Instances of 

 this are those masses of sheet-rock, which, without the cover of 

 the forest overliead, would not, as at present, be carpeted over 

 with their thick covering of moss ; agglomerations of boulders re- 

 tained in their place by the roots of the large- trees growing be- 

 tween them ; and those scarps and very steep slopes, on which any 

 steady walking is out of the question, and from which every seed 

 that falls must roll or slip down and be washed away by rain'. 

 All these various conditions of climate and soil are- often found' 

 so combined that their joint effects cannot be attributed any more 

 to one of them than to another. But however it be, their presence 

 is betrayed by facts, which are a certain indication that the Selection 

 Method is required there. In such, places the leaf-canopy is seldom 

 unbroken and continuous, and is usually breached with blanks or 

 persistent glades ; if the forest growth has been removed, the 

 naked rock crops out, or if there is a covering, of turf over It, this- 

 is wanting in places. 



Lastly, and as an exceptional case, the Selection Method is the 

 most convenient one to apply to high forests of slight extent, the 

 proprietor of which requires every year a small quantity of large 

 timber. Although the coaditions of growth in any given high 

 forest may be perfectly satisfactory, yet it may be of too limited 

 an extent to contain a complete series of graduated age-classes 

 consisting of regular crops. In such a mere grove of high forest 



