STATE AND OTHER FORESTS OF FRANCE. 93 



(e) Insects. — Insects do very little harm. Conifers, so subject 

 to insect attacks, are not planted on the high sandy soil, owing 

 to the danger from fire, but the birch is preferred. 



Management. 



The forest forms part of the conservatorship of Amiens (the 

 present conservator being M. Sainte-Claire De'ville), and is under 

 the direct charge of an inspector (M. Gibert) : it is subdivided 

 into two cantonnements, under a sub-inspector and a chief guard. 

 Under these officers are six brigadiers and twenty-one forest 

 guards, and each brigadier has twenty labourers, who work at 

 cleaning and repairs of roads, boundaries, plantations, etc. 



Besides the above, there are three guards for the fishing and 

 one for supervising repairs to the roads. Houses in the forest 

 are provided for all the officials, except the inspector; and each 

 brigadier and guard has about two and a half acres of land 

 attached to his house for garden and orchard. They are also 

 allowed to graze two or three cows on the forest rides. 



The forest is managed under the shelter-wood compartment 

 system, with a rotation of 150 years. The wood is divided 

 into thirteen working-sections of high forest, each of which 

 is treated in the same manner, and may, in fact, be considered 

 as a complete forest. There are also three working-sections of 

 coppice-with-standards, which are being converted into high 

 forest, and two of them (1265 and 1326 acres) have rotations 

 of 40 years for their underwood. The third (1685 acres) has 

 30 compartments with 30 years' rotation, and 10 stocked with 

 conifers which are thinned every ten years. The age-classes in 

 the high forest are marked by colours on the map, of which 

 black represents a wood from o to 30 years of age; yellow, 31 

 to 60 years; red, 61 to 90 years; and blue, 91 to 150 years. 



A preparatory felling is made when the trees are about no 

 years old. The object of this felling is to prepare the standing 

 trees for bearing seed, and, at the same time, to preserve the 

 cover. When the trees are about 135 years old, a seeding 

 felling is made. When the regeneration of an area is started, it 

 can generally be finished in twelve to fifteen years. Hence it 

 is not necessary to make a felling area of a whole compartment; 

 on the contrary, a compartment contains several felling areas. 

 These are usually defined by girdling a few trees on the edge 

 with a band of red paint. Generally the felling areas are small. 



