REPORT ON THE EXCURSION TO FRANCE. I 35 



entire area, 1753 acres are given over to ornament and game. 

 It was, up to 1870, for centuries the hunting and shooting ground 

 of the rulers of France. It is much intersected by roads and 

 rides for the convenience of hunting, and some of the rides are 

 used for training race-horses. 



The forest is let for shooting in thirty divisions, while over 

 and above this it is let as a whole for hunting, the revenue 

 derived from these sports amounting to ^^3880 per annum. 



The forest is stocked with oak, beech, hornbeam, and other 

 broad-leaved trees, and in a few places there are conifers 30 to 

 40 years old; only the former were naturally reproduced, the 

 conifers having been planted. 



An area of 32,292 acres, divided into 10 working-sections, is 

 managed as high forest, worked with a rotation of 150 years, 

 and giving an annual yield of 46 cubic feet per acre from 

 thinnings, while two sections, comprising 2027 acres, are treated 

 as coppice-with-standards, the rotation of the underwood being 

 35 years. 



It was noticed that a large proportion of this forest contained 

 a pure crop of pedunculate oak about 100 years old. These 

 were all more or less in a sickly and dying condition, owing to 

 the absence of beech and hornbeam as soil-protectors. There is, 

 as a rule, no underwood, and the ground under the oak is 

 covered with a sole of thick, tough grass. 



Another cause contributing to the slow growth and unsatis- 

 factory state of the trees is the dryness of the soil, as this 

 species requires much more moisture to grow it to perfection 

 than does the sessile oak. 



Some splendid specimens of the latter were seen. The king 

 of the forest, said to be the largest oak tree in France, measures 

 118 feet in height, and girths 17 feet at 4 feet 3 inches up. Its 

 total contents are 11 20 cubic feet, and it is valued at ;^ioo. 



The average gross revenue of the forest during the last 10 

 years has been ;^33, 480. 



The oak and beech forest of Belleme was the one chosen for 

 the last day of the forestry part of the Excursion. 



It is on an isolated plateau, 500 to 800 feet above sea-level, 

 with sloping sides, the water-courses from which drain into the 

 river Sarthe, a tributary of the river Loire. 



The total area is 6072 acres. Oak forms 50 per cent, of the 

 crop, the sessile species being predominant. 



