186 ORGANISATION OF SELECTION-WORKED I*0REST^. 



it was considered dangerous to remove so many trees all at once froml 

 a single acre, the thing to do would be to reduce the number of the 

 coupes. Suppose that number reduced to 6, then the Selection 

 Fellings would return to the same spot once every 6 years and 

 remove therefrom only 3 trees per acre. It is thus apparent that 

 the first point of all to determine is the number of trees that may 

 be extracted in a single operation from one acre without endan- 

 gering the safety of the forest. It is only then that the periodicity 

 of the fellings and the number and boundaries of the coupes can 

 be fixed. The Working Plan is thus indissolubly connected with 

 the yield of the forest. In high forests vorked by Selection, more 

 so even than in those subjected to the Natural Method, the combi- 

 nations of the Organisation Project should be subordinated to 

 cultural requirements, that is to say, to the rules ^f exploitation 

 necessary for the preservation of the forest. 



It is evident that by felling every year the same number of 

 trees without any regard to their size, the annual yield cannot be the 

 same either in respect of quantity or money-value ; but in proceed- 

 ing thus, the constant maintenance of the forest in a well-stocked 

 state, or its continued improvement until it reaches that state, ia 

 guaranteed. In the first place, it is easy to see that the same 

 number of trees may be exploited year after year in a Selection- 

 worked forest for an indefinite period of time. If the contents of 

 the exploitable tree be 140 cubic feet, and the sum of production of 

 the forest 70 cubic feet per acre per annum, it is quite possible 

 that the forest may be sufiiciently well stocked with trees of all ao-es 

 to bear half a tree or 70 cubic feet being removed per acre without 

 either becoming richer or poorer. But if, on the other hand, the 

 forest actually contained but little large timber, the same number 

 of trees would be still cut, but these would be mostly of smaller 

 size than the type tree of 140 cubic feet ; and so the stock of the 

 forest would go on increasing every year. On the contrary, if the 

 trees exploited contained more than 140 cubic feet, the quantity 

 extracted annually would exceed 70 cubic feet per acre, and the 

 stock would go on diminishing. 



Again if the total production of the soil was not 70 but only 

 60 cubic feet per acre, the effect of exploiting half a tree per acre 

 would, even without any consciousness on the part of the operating 



