A FOREST TOUR AMONG THE DUNES OF GASCONY. 301 
ful crop of seedlings on the ground; so that, if these could be 
protected against fires and grazing, the remainder of the trees 
might be removed, without fear of failure to obtain a fully 
stocked forest. The pine has long thin needles, giving very light 
shade, and the trees will not stand growing close together ; those 
only which are sufficiently far apart, vigorous, and with a well- 
developed crown yielding resin in large quantities. Thinnings 
are commenced when the young trees are from six to eight years 
old, and are repeated every five or six years, At twenty years of 
age there should be from 250 to 280 stems per acre ; and at thirty 
years, not more than from 100 to 120; this number being finally 
reduced to from 60 to 80, when, at the age of seventy or eighty 
years, the regeneration fellings are commenced. With this num- 
ber on the ground, the upper or cone-bearing branches are free, 
but not the lower ones; these latter should be allowed to touch, 
so that the natural pruning of the lowest of them may be effected. 
In order that the extraction of resin may be successfully carried 
on, it is necessary that the trees should have clean stems, free of 
‘dead branches, up to a height of some 16 ft.; and in order to 
ensure this, it is usual, as an additional precaution, to prune away 
their lower branches, at the time that the first thinnings are made, 
that is when the young trees are not more than from six to eight 
years old ; but this should be done carefully, avoiding the removal 
of too many leaves at a time, as this would check their growth. 
The light cover of the pine does not afford sufficient shade to 
keep down the undergrowth of grass, gorse, heather, broom, ferns, 
and other plants, which spring up in dense masses, in proportion as 
the thinnings progress. These shrubs and herbs are much valued 
for litter and manure ; and it is customary to export them, with 
the dead pine leaves, for these uses, This of course prevents the 
accumulation of vegetable mould; but on the other hand, it is 
said that the practice is useful to some extent, in that, when they 
have been removed, the resin collectors can move about the forest 
freely, and the risk from fires is diminished. It would, however, 
be much more advantageous if an undergrowth of oak (Q. pedun- 
culata) could be established instead of these shrubs, M. Boppe 
suggested that the oaks should be planted when the pines are ten 
or twelve years old, at which age they have usually suppressed 
the shrubs that grow up with them; but M. de Monteil would 
prefer to put them in at the time of the seed-felling, and keep 
them from being choked by clearing round them. However this 
