SILVICULTURE OF EASTERN FRANCE 521 



purchaser is charged at the above rates for any difference between the 

 original tally of the reserves and this recount. 



Utilization. — The hardwood forests furnish a variety of products 

 from each parcel. The trees over about 10 inches in diameter are cut 

 into single logs, full length to a top diameter of 4 to 6 inches. The 

 stems are hauled off the forest in this form. The material in the cop- 

 pice and in the tops from 3 to 6 or 8 inches in diameter is cut usually 

 into 52-inch lengths and piled for cordwood. The smaller stems and 

 branches from three-quarters inch to 3 inches in diameter are cut into 

 26-inch lengths and piled. Later this wood is usually converted into 

 charcoal right on the ground or hauled to a nearby hardwood distilla- 

 tion plant. The twigs below three-quarters-inch diameter are bound 

 into bundles with limber twigs and hauled away for local use as kin- 

 dling. Thus complete utilization is secured. 



Yields. — The yields vary widely. In logs they run from practically 

 nothing up to 10,000 board feet per acre. The average, however, is 

 only 500 to 1,000 board feet per acre. The cordwood, including both 

 sizes, or all material between three-quarters inch and 6 inches in 

 diameter yields from 5 to 20 cords of wood per acre, averaging 10. Of 

 this, on the average, from one-fourth to one-half is the larger wood 

 from 3 to 6 inches in diameter. From 5 to 10 per cent of it comes from 

 the branches of the larger trees, which are cut into logs. 



To an American, the following features of French silvicultural prac- 

 tice stand out as at least suggestive : 



(1) Intensive forestry is being practiced by private owners to 

 their financial advantage. 



(2) The management is of a very simple type and depends more 

 upon the local forester's intimate knowledge of his forest and silvi- 

 cultural good judgment than upon complicated working plans. 



(3) The absolute insistence in marking upon the reservation of all 

 the best individual trees, more or less regardless of what their number 

 per unit of area may be. 



(4) The complete control down to the smallest detail by the local 

 forest agent of all the operations which go on in the forest. The 

 logger must practically submit to having his job run by the forester. 



