46 THE NEW FORESTRY. 



been claimed that the system originated in those countries 

 where it is practised so successfully. All that has been done 

 has been to maintain and extend the forests on principles 

 derived from a close study of nature, and that is all. Were 

 it not that the trees in the later German forests are seen to 

 have been planted in rows, or in some kind of formal order, 

 the visitor could not tell the artificially planted sections from 

 those that had grown up naturally. Much of the timber 

 imported to this country from Germany and Northern Europe 

 is from purely natural forests — from Russia, Sweden, and 

 Norway, almost wholly so ; while from the natural forests of 

 America, Asia, Africa, and the Colonies, come vast quantities 

 of timber of all descriptions, rivalling, if not surpassing, the 

 productions of the scientifically-managed forests of Europe, 

 and produced under exactly the same conditions unaided by 

 the cultural hand of man. 



Reduced to practice then, this system consists in the 

 division of the forest into areas and compartments in which 

 the timber crops are regulated on a strict rotation system 

 according to the species ; in the reproduction of crops by seed, 

 or by plants raised in the forest nurseries from seed and 

 planted out small ; in planting thickly, so as to cover the ground 

 speedily ; in crowding the trees judiciously at all stages, so as 

 to secure height growth and clean cylindrical trunks ; and in 

 thinning sparingly at long intervals. The rotation period 

 determines the length of time that any crop of timber shall 

 occupy the ground, and is regulated more by the size of the 

 trees than their maturity. It is found that the Scotch fir and 

 spruce reach their most useful maximum dimensions at one 

 hundred years of age or thereabout, and the final crop, or what 

 remains of it, is then swept away and the ground re-sown or 

 re-planted. On the same principle, the beech, mixed with a 

 few other hard-woods, is allowed one hundred and twenty-five 

 years, and the oak one hundred and fifty years. Practically 

 all the species grown come within these three groups. There 

 is no irregularity and no blanks. When all the main divisions 

 of the wooded area have reached the productive stage, each 

 yielding its annual quota of timber, the "working circle" is 

 said to be complete — reproduction, of course, going oh in 

 proportion to the fellings. Supposing this method was applied 

 to a well-wooded estate in England, the wooded area would 

 have to be arranged in divisions of workable size, which, when 

 fully stocked, would each yield a certain and regular quantity 

 of timber. The average annual income expected from the 



