326 REPORT OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE ON FORESTRY. 
planting.” —‘* M. Boppe appears to imply that, in his judgment, the 
beech might advantageously be cultivated more in Scotland than 
has been the case—that it has been somewhat neglected?” “In all 
my conversation with Scottish and other foresters in this country, 
their objection to the beech is that they have no market for it. In 
Buckinghamshire I have been to see the indigenous forests there ; 
but there is a large manufacture of chairs carried on there. In 
foreign countries there are a number of little things which are made 
out of beech, which nobody thinks of employing in this country. 
It is very difficult to get rid of beech. We do not use wood for fir- 
ing, which is one large use of it in France.”—‘‘ When you say beech 
is difficult to get rid off, you mean difficult to sell?” “Yes. In 
France it is one of the most valuable trees ; in Germany, since the 
introduction of coal and railways, it is one of the great problems 
how to sell the beech, which has been always used for firewood.” — 
“What M. Boppe means, if I understand his report rightly, is, that 
if you are growing oak or other trees, they would do very much 
better if you mixed them with a certain quantity of beech?” “ By 
‘cultural reasons’ he means that it is so valuable for mixing with 
other trees, in order to get satisfactory results. He thought, and I 
think, certainly, that larch, if it were mixed with beech, would not 
be attacked with disease. We all know that the beech is the best 
tree you can use to mix with the oak, for example.”—‘ Does not 
M. Boppe wish to imply in this sentence that it would be of ad- 
vantage to the Scottish forests if beech were more largely used?” 
“Undoubtedly.” 
““M. Boppe suggests that sheep might be advantageously kept 
out for the first forty years and the last twenty years, but that they 
might be admitted during the intermediate period of sixty years, and 
that the pasturage in that case would be very good: did he not intend 
to imply that, in his judgment, the Scottish foresters scarcely adopted 
what he considered to be the best rule with regard to the admission of 
sheep into forest lands?” ‘Certainly; it is a very important thing. 
If you allow that the life of a forest is a hundred and twenty years, 
you would have better grazing during sixty years of it if you kept 
them out during the first forty years and the last twenty years ; it 
would rest the land.” Then M. Boppe says: ‘It would certainly 
not be fair to hold the Scottish foresters responsible for the present 
regrettable state of affairs ; for, though they have for the most part 
admitted the inefficiency of the present system, they are powerless to 
effect any improvement so long as the landowners and general public 
