FORESTRY IX HUXGARY. 59 



and shallow, the revolution for oak coppice is 60 years. In this 

 southern latitude, oak trees a hundred years old give healthy and 

 vigorous coppice shoots ; and regeneration by the coppice system 

 is consequently very easy, if the operation is properly carried 

 out. 



Two systems of felling high forest are practised, viz. — clean 

 felling, which is adopted in forests of pure, or nearly pure, beech ; 

 and selection felling, employed in mixed forests worked for large 

 timber. The first-mentioned system is here preferred to that of 

 natural regeneration by seed, on account of the violent storms 

 which sweep over this part of Hungary, and overturn the 

 standards left under the latter system ; thus not only interfering 

 with its success, but also endangering the lives of the men 

 employed in working out wood, and making charcoal in the forest. 

 The regular system is also less economical of labour, which is 

 here very scarce ; and it can therefore rarely be adopted. The 

 selection method is supplemented by planting, when the crop of 

 self-sown seedlings on the ground is insufficient. In addition to 

 the re-stocking of the forest after clean felling, a good deal is 

 done in the way of planting up blanks and bare hill sides. 



Between 1855 and 1876, over 240 million cubic feet of wood 

 were cut in the forests of the Domain; and of this quantity nearly 

 144 million cubic feet were converted into more than 73 million 

 bushels of charcoal for use in the furnaces. In 1881 the forests 

 produced over 23| million cubic feet of wood, of which more than 

 10^ million cubic feet were converted into charcoal. 



Forests of the Berzava. 

 On the morning of the 18th July, we started with M. Fery at 

 an early hour, and drove a distance of 18 miles, to visit the 

 forests in which the wood used at Resicza is grown. Our route 

 lay through the Domain, and led us past several villages surrounded 

 by fields and orchards. The company gives advances for build- 

 ing, and allows the people, on the jiayment of a nominal land 

 rent, to plant orchards of plum and apple trees, from the fruit of 

 which they distil a spirit. The control of all such concessions is 

 vested in the forest officers. We passed through some forests of 

 beech mixed, at the lower levels, with hornbeam, birch, and other 

 trees, and higher up, with spruce, silver fir, and a small propor- 

 tion of larch. We noticed a considerable number of plantations, 

 the plants standing in vertical lines. We halted at the village of 



