70 THE PRINCIPLES OF HANDLING WOODLANDS 



sive of all systems, as illustrated in certain forests of 

 Europe. 



In the primitive application of the selection system, 

 as described in the foregoing pages, the handicaps of mar- 

 kets and transportation prevent more than a rough pro- 

 tection and care of the young growth. If there is a 

 market for all products and a system of permanent roads, 

 the cutting cycle may be reduced even to a single year. 

 The aim is then to make provision, as fast as the forest 

 permits, for a proper representation of age-classes; repro- 

 duction of the right species is secured, if necessary, by 

 planting; improvement work is done throughout the 

 given stand, so as to give each tree the right amount of 

 space for its best development; deteriorating trees, those 

 of poor form, and injured trees are cut at the proper 

 time. In other words, instead of handling the forest 

 under long cutting c)'cles and large logging units, the 

 management is intensified, the units are reduced in size, 

 and each stand is cut over at frequent intervals. 



This intensive development of the selection system 

 finds its expression in a number of special forms of appli- 

 cation in Europe. In general, the tendency is to trans- 

 form the forest into the group-selection form, in w hich 

 each age-class occurs in groups instead of in the single- 

 tree arrangement. The groups vary in size from fifty 

 feet to several hundred feet across, are irregular in form 

 and area, and their location in relation to each other is 

 irregular; but the aim is to secure an equal aggregate 

 area of each age-class in each stand. This develop- 



