324 Major F. Bailey's Forest Tour 



very variable according to soil and situation. There are 

 two varieties, — the larger of which yields, in favourable 

 localities, a good crop every three years, or from £8 to 

 £10 an acre ; the smaller kind yields a good crop every 

 two years, but the net returns are much the same. The 

 trees, which are always grafted, are usually planted in 

 clusters of two or three together, the group being 

 pruned in various ways, frequently with a hollow^ centre, so 

 as to favour the production of fruit on the inside as well as 

 the outside surface of the " vase " thus formed. Shoots 

 appearing on the bole of the tree or springing from 

 its base are kept carefully pruned back, the leaves and 

 twigs thus removed being buried below it, so as to avoid 

 '.aking more than necessary from the soil. The crop is 

 gathered from November to January, the fruit being 

 picked up from the ground, and also plucked ; it is then 

 taken to a mill, turned by water-power or by horses, and 

 <;rushed, with its kernel, in order to extract the oil, the 

 most expensive kind being that which comes from the 

 unripe olives. The trees have lately suffered much from 

 attacks by an insect, the larva of which is developed in 

 the fruit. 



M. ]\[adon's little lecture finished, we started to walk 

 through the forest, sending our omnibus to await us at 

 Belgentier. The forest, which is State property, has an 

 area of 2700 acres. Like that of St Baume, it was 

 protected as ecclesiastical property up to the time of the 

 E-evoluticn, and it used to yield a considerable proportion 

 of the oak timber required for the navy ; but over-cutting 

 and insufficient protection have now reduced it to a ver}'- 

 poor condition, and trees capable of yielding wood of this 

 class are nowhere to be seen. It is difficult, indeed, to 

 realise that they ever existed ; but it is said that they 

 were all taken out during the Eevolution and the first 

 Empire, and that the forest has never been allowed to 

 recover. The lower portion, where we entered, is now 

 stocked with. Quercus Ilex and sessilifiora\ the former cut 

 at a young age for tanning bark, and the latter, worked as 

 a simple coppice, being cut at the age of twenty-two years 

 for conversion into charcoal. Bark and charcoal can be 

 profitably exported, the gross annual revenue from these 



