STATE AND OTHER FORESTS OF FRANCE. Ill 



fertile loam. In places swamps occur. The district is rich in 

 coal, and mines extend in all directions at about 600 metres 

 below the surface, often causing a sinking of the land, which is 

 generally the cause of these swamps. The trees die when the 

 ground sinks and becomes swampy ; they are then felled, and the 

 swamp filled with debris from the mines and replanted. Some 

 swamps are being thus filled up; on others pollard willows are 

 growing. The present plan, however, is to dig tanks for fish on 

 all sunken areas. 



Dangers. 



Frost. — Spring frosts form one of the chief dangers to these 

 forests. 



Snow. — Snow is not very dangerous in a coppice-with- 

 standards, but a few long, slender oak standards have bent over, 

 owing to the weight of snow that accumulated on them last year. 



Climbing Plants. — The woodbine constitutes another danger, 

 especially among coppice-shoots. 



Rabbits. — These animals are kept down in winter by shooting 

 as many as possible, especially in the State forest. They are 

 also trapped during summer. In passing through a part of the 

 wood where the coppice compartments gradually rise in age, it 

 was found that the height of the coppice actually descended. 

 This was accounted for by the fact that in an adjoining private 

 forest the rabbits had not been sufficiently suppressed. No 

 coppice can exist where rabbits abound. 



Insects. — Tortrix viridana frequently destroys the first foliage 

 of the oak trees. 



Birds. — The only birds to be seen were pheasants and a few 

 other common species, but these interfere in no way with the 

 growth of the trees. Jays are regularly shot, as they destroy 

 pheasants' eggs. 



General Management. 



These forests are managed under the system known as coppice- 

 with-standards. In the State forest about 2000 acres are under 

 Scots pine, as high forest; in the private forest about 375 acres. 



There are eighteen working-sections with a twenty-five years' 

 rotation. The annual felling area in a section in the State forest 

 averages only about 25 acres, whereas a felling area in the private 

 forest extends over 125 acres, there being only two working- 

 sections, with fourteen years' rotation. 



