European Plans of Forest Management. 105 



plants, and in a year or two the ■whole surface of the -woodland is 

 carpeted with the fresh green foliage of young seedling trees. 



409. These tender plants would soon wither and perish in the full 

 light of day in an open field. They need just the kind of shelter 

 that the parent-trees afford. The sunlight comes down sprinkled 

 here and there, and the shadows pass over them, so that with this 

 alternation of light and shelter the plants receive just the proportion 

 that is needed for their most thrifty growth. 



410. As they gain in size, they need more light, and will bear 

 more exposure ; and finally, when they need shelter no longer, the 

 remaining trees are carefully taken out, and the young forest starts 

 off on a new period, to supply timber for the use of generations un- 



"born. 



411. This period in the larch and the birch ranges from 50 to 60 

 years, or with the former in cold regions it may extend to 120 or 

 140 years. With the locust and the maritime, Aleppo and Corsican 

 pines, it is from 60 to 70 years ; with the Scotch pine, it is from 80 

 to 90 years ; with the beech, from 80 to 140 years ; with the ash, 

 from 90 to 100 years; with the chestnut, from 90 to 120 years; 

 with the spruce, from 90 to 140 years; with the fir, from 100 to 

 140, the average being about 120 years ; with the elm, 100 to 120 

 years ; and with the oak, 120 to 200 years. " 



412. The profits of a full-grown forest, as compared with a cop- 

 pice, are very great. It is shown by Hartig, a noted German au- 

 thor, that a high forest cut at 120 years bears to a coppice cut once 

 in 30 years, through the same time, the proportion of 7 to 4, aU re- 

 ceipts and expenses being taken into the account. 



413. Whenever the time shall come that our only supplies of 

 timber are furnished by cultivation, great corporations will doubtless 

 be formed, for managing great forest properties, under skilled 

 agents, and with a capital that can afiTord to wait a long time, so 

 long as it is earning a good rate, and promises a sure profit. By 

 such means, forests can be grown to great advantage, but best upon 

 an extensive scale. 



European Fared Administrations. 



414. In every country upon the continent of Europe, considerable 

 tracts of woodland belong to the government. The local munici- 

 palities (communes, cities, etc.) own other tracts, generally near or 



