92 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



reign, and during Colbert's term of office, the system known as 

 Tir et Aire was started. It consisted in treating the area under 

 the clear-cutting system, but leaving eight beech or oak stand- 

 ards (chiefly the former) per acre if available, the object being 

 the production of large trees and the self-sowing of the clearings. 

 Xo thinnings were made. Under this treatment the beech 

 increased in numbers and the oak diminished. There was also 

 a little coppice in some parts of the forest. The system was 

 carried on up to 1830, and in 1832 the compartment method 

 {Re s;<^ne ration naturelle avec eclaircies) was adopted, followed by a 

 working-plan in 1857, which was itself revised in 1887, and has 

 now been revised again in 1902. 



Dangers. 



The forest may be considered comparatively free from dangerous 

 influences. 



(a) Frost and Snore. — Frost and snow do not appear to be 

 sources of much danger. Only in one case did we hear or see of 

 a wood being affected by frost, and then a very severe frost some 

 thirty or forty years ago necessitated cutting back the young 

 beech over the whole seedling area. 



(b) JVinds. — Strong westerly gales are the greatest danger in 

 the compartment system. When an area has been thinned in 

 order to produce seed in quantity and to diminish the density of 

 the cover, the mother-trees, being more or less isolated, are often 

 blown down. Nevertheless, in the Foret de Retz such damage 

 is rare ; but, as before stated, care must be taken when felling 

 areas are at all exposed. 



(c) Climbing Plants, etc. — The woodbine, sallows, and birch 

 endanger the young crop at the time of the final felling, but by 

 continual cleanings, and owing to the fact that the beech is a 

 shade-bearer, also that the oaks when planted are five or six feet 

 in height, this danger is easily overcome. 



(d) Game. — Rabbits would entirely ruin the young crops were 

 they not continually kept down by the brigadiers and guards. 

 There are many red-deer, but the area of this and adjoining 

 unfenced forests is so large that they do comparatively little 

 damage to the forest. Compensation is paid by the lessee for 

 any damage done to adjoining farms by the deer, the forest 

 being unfenced. 



