178 MAINTENANCE OF THE SELECTION METHOD. 



The larger the area of the forest to be worked by Selection 

 is, the more necessary becomes the judicious application of that 

 method. But the manner of its application is different for the 

 different species. The difference is greatest between that adapted 

 for forests of delicate species, like the silver and spruce firs, and 

 that suited for forests of hardy species, like the Scots' pine and 

 the larch. In the former only a very few trees may be removed 

 from any one point ; in a silver fir forest, for instance, only one. 

 The young silver fir requires for its maintenance only a small 

 quantity of light, and a full canopy is one of the first conditions ne- 

 cessary for the favourable growth of that tree. Where it is the 

 dominant species, we must be careful not to remove, under the 

 pretence of making a thinning, any over-topped poles, unless these 

 are in a dying state ; for they possess the faculty of regaining 

 vigour and of shooting up as soon as they are uncovered, and, as 

 a general rule, they fill up at once the place left vacant by the 

 overtopped trees, when these have fallen, either under the axe of 

 the woodcutter or the violence of the wind. An analogous pro- 

 cedure, although slightly different, must be followed in the case of 

 the spruce, which species is slightly more hardy, has a taller habit, 

 and forms less regular leaf-canopy than the silver fir. 



JFor pines and the larch the treatment is quite different. 

 Worked by the Natural Method, they require an open Regeneration 

 Felling. When subjected to the Selection Method, the Scots' pine 

 similarly requires the removal of several trees from the same point, 

 80 as entirely to uncover a small plot (from 8 to 14 poles, for ins- 

 tance), with this precaution, however, that these little gaps are made 

 at sufficiently wide intervals. The young seedling of the Scots' pine 

 requires plenty of light to maintain itself and develop, and the trees 

 of these species are averse to growing up side by side unless they 

 are all more or less of the same height. When the large trees have 

 been felled, it is perfectly useless preserving the poles that were 

 growing under or close against them ; such poles are always more 

 or less sickly and can never come to any good, and their preser- 

 vation would only occupy the ground to the detriment of younger 

 and more promising growth. Thinnings are useful and sometimes 

 even necessary in uniform crops of Scots' pine poles. The require- 

 ments of the larch resemble those of the Scots' pine, but the stronger 



