10 TRANSACTIONS OF ROVAL SCOl IISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



years. In the Morvan the species so treated (for the method 

 still persists to some extent) is beech. Beech is not much of a 

 tree to coppice, but still it does coppice, and is the best of fuel 

 trees. A wood treated by Furetage must in time disappear if 

 steps are not taken to prevent this, since the stools eventually 

 lose their power of producing coppice-shoots. Attempts are made 

 to remedy this by leaving a few standards to provide seed, but 

 it cannot be much good, because seedlings can but rarely 

 survive amidst a coppice growth. It would, however, be 

 possible to plant seedlings of a certain size, and either grub 

 up the surrounding coppice-stools, or regularly cut back the' 

 coppice-shoots that threatened the planted seedlings. 



It seems possible that Furetage may be a method of 

 value in places where poles are wanted for some special 

 purpose. For example, in Kent, where hop poles are much 

 used, a strongly coppicing species like chestnut seems specially 

 indicated. Ash, too, is a great species to coppice, and, unless 

 I am mistaken, is in fact used for hop poles. If this is so, it 

 must be because the ash pole is easily obtainable, and also of 

 a suitable shape, for the very poor durability of this wood 

 when exposed must be much against it for such a purpose. Or 

 are the ash poles, perhaps, creosoted ? 



One great point about Furetage is its absolutely rule-of-thumb 

 nature, which would allow of any ignorant labourer working it, 

 once the compartments were laid down and allocated to their 

 several years of exploitation. 



IV. — M. Emil Mer who, as we saw in the " Continental Notes " 

 of January 1915, made experiments with spruce to ascertain the 

 best degree of intensity to which to thin, has now given us most 

 carefully compiled information in the same direction for the 

 silver fir. Whereas the spruce crops he experimented on were 

 young, those of silver fir were older, namely, 50 to bo years old 

 at the commencement of his operations so long ago as 1886. 

 Two plots, A and B, were marked off and experimented on up 

 to 191 1. The stems were classified by girth, and the value of 

 a tree of each girth-class established. A, which at the 

 beginning contained fewer stems than B, was thinned to a 

 heavier degree (i.e. percentage) than B, but since the latter plot 

 had the greater number of stems the actual outturn from it was, 

 in some of the thinnings, greater than from A. There were 

 altogether four thinnings. The results from start to finish were 



