REPORT ON THE EXCURSION TO FRANCE. 133 



earn about 2 francs per day ; the wages of the men being about 

 4 francs. The making of the clogs costs about a id., and the 

 wood 2|d., per pair. A brush and sieve factory was afterwards 

 visited. The wood from which these are made is principally 

 beech. 



After luncheon, which was served in the Hotel du Dauphin, 

 a visit was paid to the forest which surrounds the town on three 

 sides. It has an area of over 32,000 acres, of which about 

 28,000 acres are high forest; the remainder is coppice-with- 

 standards, but is also being converted into high forest. The 

 altitude varies from 200 to 800 feet above sea-level. The soil 

 on which the forest grows consists of sandy loam, about 20 inches 

 deep. The forest is managed by subdivision into periodic blocks, 

 with natural regeneration under parent trees {Shelter- Wood 

 Compartmetit System), with a rotation of 150 years. The distri- 

 bution of trees over the whole forest is — beech, 40 per cent.; 

 hornbeam, 40 per cent.; oak, 15 per cent.; sallow, poplar, 

 chestnut, and elm, 3 per cent.; and conifers, 2 per cent. The 

 aim of the management here, as in other similar forests in France, 

 is to increase the percentage of oak. This is done by leaving as 

 many oak standards as possible in the seeding felling, by keeping 

 the young plants cleared of all the other kinds that would interfere 

 with their free growth, and by planting with strong transplants 

 all unregenerated parts. The oak transplants are generally five 

 years old, and are sometimes planted at the time of the fellings 

 for gradual clearance. About 800 oaks per acre are used, and 

 the cost of plants and planting is jQ^ per 1000. 



Cleanings for relieving the young oak from the more aggressive 

 growth of their neighbours are needed till the wood is 20 to 25 

 years old, when thinnings are made every ten years to remove 

 all suppressed and badly-shaped trees, except where suppressed 

 beech are left to shade the ground underneath the oaks. Most 

 of the wood from the younger thinnings is made into charcoal. 



A preparatory felling is made when the trees are about no 

 years old, with the object of preparing the trees for bearing seed, 

 by allowing the crowns to form stronger buds, as well as gradually 

 to accustom the trees to wind-pressure. 



When the trees are about 135 years old, a seeding felling 

 is made. Once the regeneration of an area is started, it can 

 generally be accomplished in 12 years. During this time, four 

 gradual clearance fellings take place, the object of which is to 



