SILVICULTURE. 



179 



timber is almost unknown, and fagots of small 

 fire wood are precious articles. 



To avoid this objection a mixed system has been 

 practised, by which part of the crop (the so-called 

 standards) is allowed to grow up and be reproduced 

 by seed, while the other part is treated as coppice ; 

 but in this so-called standard-coppice (Ger. Mittel- 

 wald, Fr. taillis compost) the standards, unimpeded 

 in their branch development, do not form service- 

 able trunks, and in addition, by their shade injure 

 the coppice growth. 



While, then, these methods are of limited use, 

 the only method of reproducing the forest which 

 is to serve as a basis for the supply of the enormous 

 quantities of saw timber required in the markets 

 is the so-called timber forest, the high forest, Hoch- 

 wald of the Germans, or futaie of the French, 

 which is reproduced by seed, and grows to full 

 size and maturity, to be again so reproduced. 



As in the natural methods the axe is the only 

 tool which is used to secure the regeneration, so is 

 the axe the only tool which cultivates the young 

 crop, such cultivation consisting in the judicious 

 removal of surplus trees by the so-called thinnings, 

 by which the quantity and quality of the crop is 

 increased. To understand this, it is necessary to 

 know that trees form wood by the function of the 

 foliage under the influence of light. 



Hence a tree with much foliage and unimpeded 

 access of light is bound to make much wood. 



