CONTINENTAL NOTES — FRANCE. 5 <$ 



the grouping of the crowns as a whole, and — as long as they are 

 all fairly good— takes out the one or two stems the removal of 

 which will best relieve the congestion in the canopy — and merely 

 relieve the congestion. I refer to a thinning in forest of small 

 or moderate age— and in such conditions I think the second 

 system the better, firstly, because, given a chance, any of those 

 fairly good stems which are left will in fact become quite fine 

 trees eventually, and, secondly, because the well-being of the 

 crop as a whole — and not merely that of individual stems — is 

 considered. It is merely a personal opinion, with which I 

 daresay most people will not agree. If one goes into a crop 

 of poles of relatively small age one is constantly met with this 

 question, " Here is a group of stems, all fairly good, and where 

 the removal of one stem from the middle will relieve the con- 

 gestion to the desired extent, but unfortunately that stem is 

 somewhat better than those around it : shall I cut 3, 4 or 5 

 relatively inferior, but fairly good, stems around the somewhat 

 better one in the middle (the 'stem of the future,' that is), or 

 shall I sacrifice the one good stem in the interests of the 

 3, 4 or 5 others (in the general interests of the canopy, that 

 is)?" It is a very crucial question, but I incline to the second 

 system, because I believe that, at the stage we are considering, 

 it is not too late for the stems on the outside of the group to 

 become valuable trees, and I think that in this way we can 

 better avoid dislocation of the canopy, not merely at the time 

 of the operation, but also in future operations. I do not 

 apologise for enlarging on this subject, for I think one is 

 apt to be careless in thinning, whereas there is perhaps no 

 operation requiring more careful forethought. 



III. — A.S. in the Bulletin de Franche Comic et Belfort gives 

 the history of a "Coupe" (Felling unit) of coppice-with- 

 standards, of 7-23 hectares, for a long period, a story which 

 well bears out the motto of the Royal Scottish Arboricultural 

 Society that trees are growing while we're sleeping. In the 

 author's table (which follows) the reserved trees are divided 

 into "baliveaux," "modernes" and "anciens," which, being 

 interpreted, means, respectively, stems that have stood 1, 2 and 

 3 or more rotations, and we may call them "small, medium 

 and large." As will be seen the rotation is 25 years. 



