STATE AND OTHER FORESTS OF FRANCE. 89 



measured and their volume counted in the fixed annual yield. 

 Owing to this provision, fellings for natural regeneration are 

 greatly retarded, as much middle-sized timber that was dying 

 has to be removed in the thinnings. 



A storm on February 13th, 1902, caused windfalls to the 

 extent of 292,500 cubic feet of timber. On this occasion the 

 wind blew from the north-east, and as all the fellings had been 

 arranged to guard against westerly gales, the damage done 

 on north-easterly exposures was enormous. Some part of the 

 damage was also due to certain old plantations of pure spruce 

 being exposed to the gale. Had these crops been mixed with 

 beech and silver fir, they would have proved much more re- 

 sisting. Owing to this storm, all regular fellings have been 

 suspended since 1902, and the windfalls are still being removed. 

 At first the price of timber fell 30 per cent., but matters are 

 now satisfactory in this respect. Owing to the impossibility of 

 barking all the injured trees forthwith, an invasion of bark- 

 beetles has followed the damage done by the storm, but this 

 affects the spruce much more than the silver fir. 



The damage done by this storm has shown the absurdity 

 of managing hill forests of conifers and beech by the shelter-wood 

 compartment system, and a new working-plan is now in pre- 

 paration by which every working-section in the forest will be 

 divided into ten blocks, each of which will be worked in 

 succession. The volume of all trees that are fit for felling in 

 the next ten years has been calculated, and one-tenth of these 

 will be felled annually, besides removing badly -shaped and 

 defective trees, and those injuring their better neighbours. It 

 is also impossible in such forests to have a rotation fixed by 

 age, for silver fir and beech trees remain alive for years in the 

 shade of larger trees, and then grow up rapidly when the latter 

 are removed, so that there is no necessary connection between 

 their age and dimensions. 



Owing to the moist nature of this forest, natural regeneration 

 of all three species of which it is composed is excellent, seedlings 

 of all ages occurring everywhere in the mossy soil-covering, and 

 developing into poles and trees, as soon as they get sufficient 

 light, by the removal of older overshadowing trees. The beech 

 tends to be invasive in this forest, and to suppress the conifers, 

 but this tendency is checked in the thinnings. 



