NATURAL REGENERATION. 117 
An American forester, in Journal of Forestry for May, 1918, has 
described neftotements in a regrowth Strobus pine and “‘ leafwood ”’ 
forest. The work was difficult, since the pine there has only a third or a 
fourth the growth of the ‘‘leafwoods.’’ Yet the cost, £1 10s. per acre 
for two nettoiements, comes out much the same as the usual two unre- 
munerative thinnings in pure forest. Some American foresters use the 
term “‘ liberation cuttings ’’ for nettovements. 
Advance ‘* Nettotements ’’—In ordinary French forestry nettoie- 
ments are made to free and clear existing valuable regrowth. But the 
question has presented itself to me whether nettozements should not be 
‘adopted as a general measure near seed-bearing trees of Kauri, 
Rimu, Totara, Puriri, and White-pine, wherever there is a chance 
of vetting natural regeneration, and where it does not now exist; so 
as to start the forest earning something at once. (The wild forest, as 
we have seen, earns nothing: growth balances decay.) Then, when the 
regular timber-cuttings came to be made later, the young trees so pro- 
duced would form what foresters term ‘‘ advance growth.’’ There is 
much Tree-fern, Nikau-palm, undergrowth, and comparatively worthless 
trees, such as Towai or Kamahi (Weinmannia sylvicola), now occupying 
ground and earning nothing! Nikau-palm seems particularly easy to 
chop with an axe, but the bushmen tell me it soon comes up again. — Its 
low, dense cover marks it out as more unfavourable than perhaps any 
other influence to Kauri regeneration. I anticipate that the result, in 
Kauri natural regeneration, would repay the cost of mettoiements, even 
after allowing for some inevitable destruction of young Kauri when the 
old trees come to be worked. (See p. 87, ‘‘ Mid-rotation Fellings of 
Kauri.’’) This is a matter for experiment, and the detailed study 
put into the ‘‘ working-plan.’’ With jardinage the removal damage 
“would be less than with the normal ‘‘ shelterwood-compartment ’’ system. 
Natural regeneration in strips and groups (p. 122) would also reduce it. 
To repeat for clearness: In the ordinary course of forest-working a 
nettovement would be done only after the first timber-fellings (the seed- 
ling cuttings of foresters) had passed—i.e., where the forest was in 
process of regeneration and there would be no more felling of trees for 
some years. But the forest at Waipoua, and much other Kauri forest, 
is so understocked with Kauri and the first-class timber-trees that I am 
of opinion that these neftoiements should be undertaken as a general 
measure preceding, as well as following, the regular regeneration cut- 
tings. As mentioned, in much of the present Kauri forest the average 
of mature trees will be barely one per acre, even in the so-called Kauri 
zone, while there are many parts of the Kauri forest where there is 
not more than one mature Kauri to 10 acres. Under these circumstances 
the natural regeneration of Kauri can only be very slight, and it is 
advisable to take measures to get in a stock of young Kauri as soon as 
possible. These measures might include both nettocements and some 
interplanting with it. Both of these would be excellent light work for 
returned soldiers. Much work like this, but less useful, has been done 
in Australia (“‘ Australian Forestry,’’ p. 367). 
(2.) * Wounding ” the Soil. 
Roughly raking or breaking the ground with a heavy long-handled 
hoe round the branch-spread of an old seed-shedding Kauri or other 
valuable timber-tree. The expressive French term is ‘‘ wounding the 
soil.’’ In Europe this is commonly prescribed in the ‘* working- 
