328 ^Major F. Dailey's Forest Tour 



coDstructed to keep the stream within its bed showed 

 us tliat we were no longer on the limestone. Here, in the 

 Maures, the slopes rarely exceed 30°, and the construction 

 of export roads and work of all kinds is consequently 

 comparatively easy. After driving a little further we left 

 the road, and mounted the hill-side through a forest of 

 pines, partly Aleppo and partly cluster, with some ever- 

 green oak in places, and a dense growth of the arborescent 

 heather. The forest is communal property, and its area 

 is about 7500 acres. The cluster pine cannot here be 

 grown profitably for resin, as the soil is too dry to produce 

 it in sufficient quantity ; the pines are, therefore, felled 

 under the selection method, at a minimum girth of 3 

 feet 8 inches, and are cut up into planks, the price per ree 

 in the forest being 4s. The evergreen oak is worked for 

 bark as a simple coppice. A little further on we came 

 upon some cork oak, and the number of that species in- 

 creased as we advanced. This tree constitutes the prin- 

 cipal wealth of the country, the crop being a very profitable 

 one, as owners of cork forest are able to count on a 

 revenue of 25s., and yet, in rare cases, as much as £19 

 an acre. Such forests, of course, cannot be bought under 

 a very high figure. About this part of the Maures the 

 State does not possess much of the forest, about 37,000 

 acres being owned by private proprietors, and about 7000 

 acres by village communities. Communes possessing 

 forests of this kind have large revenues, and as a rule they 

 have constructed fine roads and bridges out of them ; but 

 it is remarkable that, their credit being good, they are 

 nearly always heavily in debt, Pierrefeu being said to have 

 an annual income of £2000 a-year, while its debt amounts 

 to about £15,000. We were told that ten or a dozen of 

 the inhabitants of Collobrieres possess fortunes amounting 

 to £40,000, one of them having £200,000, all made by 

 cork and Spanish chestnut, of which large quantities 

 are grown higher up the valley. These men are content 

 to wear blue blouses, and to live in the same style as their 

 poorer neighbours. 



M. Madon described to us the method of treating the 

 cork oak. The removal of the cork is effected as follows : 

 — An annular incision is made near the base of the tree. 



