340 Major F. Bailey's Forest Tour 



parts of the area there are no oaks, tlie ground being en- 

 tirely occupied by pine poles. We were told that the 

 intention is to plant oaks in such places a few years 

 before clean felling the pines ; after which a crop of self- 

 sown seedling pines will be obtained, and the required 

 mixture of species will be thus constituted. Sixty acres 

 of oak were planted last year. At present there is no fixed 

 yield either of cork or of pine wood. As regards the quantity 

 of cork to be removed, it is said that the most important 

 consideration is to avoid over-working the trees, as this 

 diminishes their power of production; but there are no hard- 

 and-fast rules as to the proportion of cork that can be taken 

 from a tree. M. Capgrand-Motte's method of protective 

 envelopes has been tried, but resulted in 95 per cent, of 

 failures, a fungus growth having attacked the matrix. 

 The pines are felled at a minimum girth of 3| feet ; they 

 are barked, cut into 7 feet lengths, and carted out for 

 export by rail to Marseilles to be used for packing cases. 

 It would not pay to allow the trees to grow larger, because 

 the timber they yield would never be suitable for building ; 

 and, while sufficiently large planks of sap wood and heart- 

 wood together can be obtained from them at that girth, 

 the growth of the tree is thereafter relatively much slower 

 than before. 



The all-round gross revenue of this forest at present does 

 not exceed 2s. 6d. per acre ; but it will, no doubt, be very 

 much larger a few years hence, when the cork oaks, which 

 are now generally speaking young, have had time to grow 

 up. The roads and buildings are extremely well laid out 

 and constructed, each guard's house having a well-kept 

 piece of garden attached to it. Near the garde g^n^ral's 

 house, where we breakfasted, we saw some Australian 

 Eucalypti growing, and also our old Indian friend the 

 loquat (^Photinia japonicd). From the ridge near the house 

 we had a magnificent view towards the north-west ; but we 

 were unfortunately prevented by heavy rain from attempting 

 to ascend the neighbouring high peak, which we should 

 have very much liked to do. After breakfast, and a con- 

 versation by means of the telephone with some of the 

 guards in distant parts of the forest, we drove by another 

 road to St Raphael, where we saw many gum trees in 



