228 GOVERNMENT REGULATION AND WORKING PLANS 



direct bearing on the amount that is lost through decay; consequently 

 there is a tendency with intensive management to short cutting cycles of 

 from 5 to 10 years. With extensive management longer cutting cycles 

 are unavoidable. In Oregon (western yellow pine) a cutting cycle of 

 50 to 60 years has been tentatively adopted, obviously far too long when 

 the market is estabhshed. In France, under most intensive conditions, 

 the cutting cycle is 5 to 8 years; under less intensive conditions 9 to 18 

 years, and rarely more than this. The cutting cycle is usually a sub- 

 multiple of the rotation; with a cutting. cycle of 5 years it is presumed 

 that 5 per cent of the stand will be cut every 5 years, with a cutting 

 cycle of 10 years 10 per cent would be cut every 10 years, and with a 

 cutting cycle of 20 years 20 per cent must be cut every 20 years. This 

 has an important effect on practical logging, especially in the United 

 States where a considerable cut is usually essential to justify logging 

 investments. Short cutting cycles which are best for the cultural needs 

 of the stand are only possible under intensive conditions. 



The tendency is to have too narrow an idea of what length of rotation 

 means. For example, if 5-year-old transplants are used in a plantation, 

 after clear cutting, which is allowed to grow 100 years, the rotation in 

 this case would be 100 years rather than 105 years, since the age of the 

 transplants at the time used would be omitted in the calculation. On 

 the other hand it is recognized that the length of the rotation is shortened 

 by the use of well-formed transplants simply because the stand matures 

 sooner. Frequent and early thinnings are of the utmost importance in 

 affecting the length of a rotation. With thinnings the stand will become 

 mature earlier than if left unthinned. It must be borne in mind that 

 while the forest as a whole may be managed according to specified rota- 

 tions yet individual stands may be cut before or after the age fixed by 

 the rotation because of accidents, market conditions, or numerous other 

 considerations. Still another point worthy of emphasis is that it is 

 usually sufficient if the rotation can be established to the nearest decade; 

 it is splitting hairs to figure to the exact year when computing the 

 rotation. 



According to one writer: ''^ "It has often not been appreciated that the 

 rotation actually employed is not that corresponding to the age of the 

 smallest trees felled, but of the number of years in the felling cycles in 

 excess of this." In India economic conditions necessitate an annual 

 felling area, an average tree best suited to the objects of the manage- 

 ment, sufficiently heavy fellings to insure regeneration, and, of less 

 importance, a felling cycle which shall be a sub-multiple of the rota- 

 tion. 



"Blascheck, A. D. "The True Selection System." Indian Forester, 1913, pp. 

 427-430. 



