SILVICULTURAL SYSTEMS. 



38 



This is the system of Localized Selection. It is sim- 

 ple and easy to apply, and even if mistakes occur the}^ 

 are not apt to have dangerous consequences. It is very 

 elastic and has many forms, and it is well adapted to 

 many different kinds of forest. Logging is cheap, 

 because the area cut over in any one 5^ear is small, and 

 the reproduction is provided for by natural seeding 

 in the openings of the forest. 



THE GROUP SYSTEM. 



It often happens that all the trees of a small group 

 in the forest are killed by fire or insects at about the 

 same time. In the 

 opening thus made 

 the ground is quick- 

 ly covered w i 1 1 

 young growth, 

 which extends back 

 under the old trees 

 as far as the light 

 will permit. The 

 seedlings are usually 

 tallest, strongest, and 

 most numerous directly under the middle of the open- 

 ing, and gradually decrease at the sides. If the wind 

 should throw some trees at the edges of such an open- 

 ing, the young growth would gradually extend, and if 

 the same thing should continue to happen, in the end 

 all the old trees would have disappeared and their 

 places would have been taken by young growth. The 

 Group System is an imitation of this process. 



Fig. 20.— Mimic orest, showing distribution of 

 young growth under the Group System. 



