166 MODERN JPOEfiST ScOiJOM^. 



almost nothing to be desired. What was expected from it 

 was that it would arrest the destruction of forests, and it 

 may have done so to some extent, but not to the extent 

 that was anticipated, and desired. But the system of 

 exploitation devised by Hartig, a distinguished forest 

 official in Germany, and perfected by Cotta', his successor, 

 promised to accomplish all that was desired and more.' 



One difficulty experienced in endeavouring to secure 

 this by exploitation according to the Methode a tire et aire, 

 arose from the varying productiveness of different portions 

 of the forest, and of different portions of the portion 

 allotted for being felled within any given period — a cen- 

 tury, a decade, or a year — arising from varying soil, 

 exposure, differences in the kinds of trees growing upon 

 it, and differences in the adaptation of the ground and 

 situation to the vigorous growth of the kind of tree con- 

 stituting the mass of the forest. Had in any case the 

 forest, or the allotment for felling in the course of a 

 lengthened period, been of one kind of tree, uniform in 

 vigour of growth, and in the provision for the continuance 

 of this, it might have proved a more successful method of 

 exploitation; or if one could have selected, and placed 

 side by side, all plots uniform, or nearly so, in state and 

 prospect, and formed thus uniform allotments of consider- 

 able extent, many advantages would have thence accrued : 

 for even if it should have happened that one allotment for 

 felling within a given period proved either exceedingly 

 productive, or comparatively unproductive, the end in 

 view might have been gained by simply making the extent 

 of the area of different divisions laid out for exploitation 

 inversely proportionate to their productiveness. 



But, with a full knowledge of the contents, conditions, and 

 areas of all the divisions of a forest, a chart might be pre- 

 pared in which all portions uniform in all conditions might 

 be indicated by uniform colours ; and then arrangements 

 might be made for exploiting all plots of one colour, as if 

 constituting one continuous wood, and all plots of another 

 colour as if constituting another, and all plots of a third 

 colour as constituting a third. 



