84 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



History and Management. 



The Forest of Celles formerly belonged to the Princes of Sa/m, 

 this small State being united to France in 1793. It was managed 

 under the selection system of high forest till 1827, when attempts 

 were made to transform the treatment into that of the shelter- 

 wood compartment system, this latter being finally adopted in 

 1843, with a rotation of 120 years; and in 1846, the annual 

 yield of all fellings, including thinnings, was fixed at 56 cubic 

 feet per acre. The present working-plan was framed in 1877, 

 the fixed annual yield being revised in 1890. 



According to the present working-plan, the forest is subdivided 

 into two working-sections, managed according to the shelter-wood 

 compartment system, with a rotation of 144 years. Each 

 working-section contains four periodic blocks. During the first 

 period (187 3-1 908) the first and fourth periodic blocks are being 

 regenerated. In the remainder of the forest, thinnings are carried 

 out every twelve years. 



In calculating the prescribed annual yield, all the trees were 

 measured that were standing in the compartments destined to 

 be regenerated in the first period. 



This gave the following figures : — 



Owing to a system termed pn'comptage, all trees exceeding 

 I foot 4 inches in diameter felled in the thinnings, or wind- 

 falls, etc., in any part of the forest, are deducted from the 

 fixed annual yield for the regular fellings ; so that the latter 

 are already far behind the period prescribed for them in the 

 working-plan. 



The thinnings are carried out over 98 acres every year in 

 the first working-section, and over 120 acres in the second 

 working-section, in all parts when the young crop is sufficiently 

 old, and where regeneration fellings are not prescribed. 



