AMONG THE PINES AND FIRS 217 
creased growth on the standard trees. Hence 
artificial regeneration is the rule in most localities 
where there is a good demand for timber. Even 
without parent standard trees, a self-sown crop 
of seedlings soon springs up on blank spaces in 
immediate proximity to seed-bearing trees; but 
this can seldom indeed be relied on to form any- 
thing like a satisfactory, even-aged crop. 
Planting has also at the same time special 
dangers to face. When pine woods have been 
felled, replanting cannot safely take place till 
four years after the clearing, unless the stumps 
and roots be stubbed up, as they form breeding- 
places for the pine weevil (Hylobius abietis), a very 
noxious beetle often committing great havoc 
among young woods in Scotland by gnawing off 
the bark during the months of May to August. 
This beetle of course does most damage where 
areas are cut in regular succession, when the fresh 
stumps, the places for breeding and larval resi- 
dence, are in the immediate vicinity of the feeding- 
grounds, the young plantations, when the beetles 
hatch out in spring. This danger is minimised 
by allocating the annual falls so that the area 
to be planted each year shall be surrounded by 
