194 SELECTION-WORKED FOBESTS UNDER TRANSPOEMAttON. 



increment into account, the Amdnagiste must, in order to estimate 

 it, go back to the figures yielded by the former Selection Fellings, 

 or find out the sum of production of the soil. But it is better 

 to neglect the future increment altogether, in which case care 

 should be taken to prescribe several revisions of the annual yield 

 ■during the course of the current Period. 



The yield of the Selection Fellings to be made in the Blocks 

 that have not yet come under transformation presents no difficulty. 

 This is obvious, for in order to obtain the most desirable results 

 possible, it is expedient to remove only such trees as could not 

 maintain themselves in a sound state until the crops containing 

 them reached their turn for transformation. The effect of this 

 rule is, if we wish to work with some certainty as to results, that 

 only mature trees are removed in the successive Selection Fellings. 

 Treated thus, the crops still worked' by Selection end by becoming 

 gradually more and more complete. Each successive Period iinds 

 the small and healthy trees of the preceding Period grown up 

 into a higher age-class, and in this manner the general appearance of 

 the crops, as they approach their turn for transformation, resembles 

 more and more that of old high forest, a most favourable circumstance 

 whether we regard it from the point of view of improved produce or 

 the regeneration of those crops or the maintenance of a sustained 

 yield during the various Periods occupied by the transformation. 

 All these results may be obtained with certainty simply by restrict- 

 ing the Selection Fellings to a limited number of trees, at the rate, 

 say, of two-fifths of a tree per acre at the outside, or even at the 

 rate of only one-fifth of a tree if the forest contains only a small 

 stock of large timber. 



This point being settled, our own opinion is that the march of 

 the Selection Fellings in the Blocks not yet brought under transform- 

 ation should be arranged in a very simple manner. Given, for 

 instance, a silver fir forest of 1000 acres that is worked on a Rota- 

 tion of 144 years, divided into 4 periods of 36 years each. We will 

 suppose that it is considered advisable that the three Blocks which 

 are still to be treated by Selection should be completely worked 

 over every six years. Then their total area should be partitioned 

 off into 6 coupes, the successive order in which these 6 coupes 

 should be taken in hand and the number of trees that should be 



