FUTAIE, OR FULL-GROWTH SYSTEM. 
317 
any species cannot be grown in this method, because trees 
which shoot from decaying stumps and their dying roots, 
become hollow or otherwise unsound before they acquire their 
full dimensions. A more fatal objection still, is, that the roots 
of trees will not bear more than two or three, or at most four 
cuttings of their shoots before their vitality is exhausted, and 
the wood can then be restored only by replanting entirely. 
The period of cutting coppices varies in Europe from fifteen to 
forty years, according to soil, species, and rapidity of growth. 
In the fiddle, or full-growtli system, the trees are allowed 
to stand as long as they continue in healthy and vigorous 
growth. This is a shorter period than would be at first sup¬ 
posed, when we consider the advanced age and great dimen¬ 
sions to which, under favorable circumstances, many forest 
trees attain in temperate climates. But, as every observing 
person familiar with the natural forest is aware, these are ex¬ 
ceptional cases, just as are instances of great longevity or of 
gigantic stature among men. Able vegetable physiologists 
have maintained that the tree, like most reptiles, has no nat¬ 
ural limit of life or of growth, and that the only reason why 
our oaks and our pines do not reach the age of twenty cen¬ 
turies and the height of a hundred fathoms, is, that in the 
multitude of accidents to which they are exposed, the chances 
of their attaining to such a length of years and to such dimen¬ 
sions of growth are a million to one against them. But 
another explanation of this fact is possible. In trees affected 
by no discoverable external cause of death, decay begins at the 
topmost branches, which seem to wither and die for want of 
nutriment. The mysterious force by which the sap is carried 
years old, are disseminated at various points, sometimes intermixed with 
broad-leaved trees, sometimes forming groves by themselves .”—Revue de& 
Deux Mondes , Mai, 1863, pp. 153,154. 
The forests of Denmark, which, in modern times, have been succeeded 
by the beech—a species more inclined to be exclusive than any other 
broad-leaved tree—were composed of birches, oaks, firs, aspens, willows, 
hazel, and maple, the first three being the leading species. At present, 
the beech greatly predominates.— Vaupell, Bogens Indvandring, pp. 19, 20. 
