Sylviculture

Sylviculture, that division of the science of forestry which relates to the planting and cultivation of collective bodies of forest-trees. Its first fundamental principle is that the natural productive capacity of the soil must be carefully conserved, in order that it may satisfy continuously and uninterruptedly all rational demands made on the land with regard to the production of timber, or of other forest crops. Its second principle is to select for planting the trees most suitable to the climate, soil and situation to be planted, due regard being paid to the commercial value of the produce. The application of the principles of meteorology, geology, and vegetable physiology to the problems of nutrition, growth and reproduction in trees belongs thus both to arboriculture (q.v.), the study of trees individually, and to sylviculture. So, too, the protection of whole woodlands from injurious climatic influences, insects, fungi, etc., belongs to sylviculture, as the treatment of the individual tree in such matters does to arboriculture. Sylviculture is not directly concerned with the sale of forest produce; but it is most pressingly interested in the truly economical management and realisation of this produce. A third leading principle may be said to be that the annual felling of mature timber should not exceed the annual production of the forest. To cut less is to neglect economy of management; to cut more is to trench upon the capital of the forest. This involves the use of a proper working-plan, and systematic forest book-keeping. Among the most important practical results of the long and careful study of sylviculture in Germany is the conclusion that mixed forest - i.e. the cultivation of several species together - is preferable to pure forest, or the growth of species singly, and the principle that trees should be be planted and thinned in such a manner as to maintain close canopy, or unbroken shade beneath them.