854 NATURAL REGBNEBATION BY SEED. 



ladders (those made of unsplit bamboo are the best), or simply a 

 strong straight pole or bamboo, either with short bars of wood 

 passed through at the requisite intervals or triangular pieces of 

 wood nailed alternately on two opposite sides. To prevent all 

 chance of slipping, both ends of the pole or bamboo should be 

 shod with a strong two-pronged fork (Fig. 112). Climbing irons 

 should never be used, as the points penetrate right into the sap- 

 wood and give rise to unsoundness there. 



3. Eradication or reduction of inferior injurious growth. 



Wherever regeneration has failed, if there is still time left for 

 its appearance and establishment, there the soil should be cleared 

 as in a seed-felling. Sometimes an important species may be 

 absent or insufficiently represented in the midst of an otherwise 

 complete reproduction ; here also, if there is time and any hope 

 of the defect remedying itself, the ground should be cleared in 

 patches for the reception of seed. 



It will often happen that seedHngs are kept back or threatened 

 with suppression by weeds, brushwood and coppice shoots, and even 

 by larger, older and denser and more rapid-growing seedlings of 

 inferior or otherwise less desirable species. Weeds and brushwood 

 should be pulled or grubbed up by the roots ; and an overcrowded 

 condition of the seedlings themselves may also be remedied in the 

 same way by taking out the harmful and least desirable individuals. 

 Seedlings of species that cannot bear too close contact of roots 

 or crown with neighbouring individuals should have the soil 

 completely cleared round them over a radius of 6-12 inches. 



Where the growth is not too crowded, obnoxious indi-viduals 

 should not be killed, but merely cut back or even only topped off. 

 Cutting back is necessary, if the seedHngs to be fostered are very 

 small or are of comparatively slow growth, or if the thicket re- 

 quires a little thinning out. Topping off will suffice, if the seed- 

 lings to be freed are already of some size or are on the point of 

 shooting up rapidly, and the growth requires to be kept dense 

 below. The height at which plants should be topped off, will 

 depend on the height and condition of the seedHngs in whose 

 interests the operation is required and on their own rapidity of 

 growth. Thus, if those seedlings are about to start rapidly up- 

 wards, their too forward neighbours should be just reduced to their 

 level ; if these latter are pushing up more quickly, then they should 

 be cut down proportionately lower. The great rule to observe 

 in these operations is, while never letting the obnoxious seed- 



