NATURAL REGENERATION. 115 
NATURAL REGENERATION. 
-———_——- = 
ASSUMING that there are sufficient old trees on the ground to produce 
seed, natural regeneration may be summed up in these words: Light, and 
the sovl in good order. Primarily it is a light-study. 
When, as a green boy, I, was sent to study forestry under a French 
Conservator of Forests, his first lesson was a tour round his series of 
coupes (felling-areas), beginning with little light and few young trees, 
and ending with full light and the ground sufficiently covered with young 
trees, though not in the regular state that an amateur forester might 
expect to see. These regeneration cuttings may last from ten to thirty 
years, ; 
How to get 7t.—In nature an old tree falls and lets in light. If there 
is dormant seed in the ground (or on the fallen tree) and if the soil is in 
good order there will be an abundant crop of young trees, but otherwise 
not. There is a balance of influences for and against natural renegera- 
tion ; and in the end the forest remains as it has existed for ages. 
Jt makes little difference if man steps in and fells the old trees a 
few years earlier, leaving the rest to nature as before. This is jardinage, 
or ‘‘ selection ’* felling. It makes more difference if the forester, after 
a close study of natural forces, intervenes more vigorously, the forester’s 
object being usually to regularize the forest so as to get even-aged timber 
crops, and to secure fellings concentrated in one place at one time. 
Jardimage more or less systematized is usually applied to inaccessible, 
poor, or exposed forests, It is often a step to the regular ‘‘ shelterwood- 
compartment ’’ forest. With jardinage natural regeneration is as cer- 
tain as in the virgin forest. To pure jardinage most foresters prefer to 
add some “‘improvement fellings’’ and cultural operations, as far as 
the accessibility and, consequently, value of the forest will allow. 
Sir William Schlich, after the tour of the English Arboricultural 
Society through the German forests shortly before the war, summed up 
natural regeneration in these words: ‘‘ Natural regeneration is only 
possible if the soil is in proper condition, or if it is worked. The great 
object always 1s to avoid the cost of working the soil by seeing that it is 
kept in good condition. Natural regeneration is generally, though not 
always, cheaper than sowing or planting; but, above all, the shelter-wood 
with natural regeneration prevents the soil from deteriorating during 
the regeneration period.’’ : 
Letting in the light, of course, means felling the timber. The 
forester marks the trees for felling always with a view to natural re- 
generation. In technical forestry special rules are laid down for earry- 
ing out the regeneration fellings. There is a system of cuttings called 
coupes de regeneration, ending with the coupes definitives when natural 
regeneration has been secured, and the young trees are able to stand a 
full exposure to hght. 
In most forests of true Pine (Pius species), or in any other forests 
where natural regeneration is good, such as the Beech forests of New 
Zealand, or below the Oaks and Syeamores in the parks at Christ- 
church, or in much of Mr. Deane’s fine plantations at ‘‘ Homebush,’’ all 
that is required for natural regeneration is the removal of the older 
trees, though it is usually not safe to do this in one operation, as the 
