58 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



which to our casual glance always look very much as they have 

 ever done. And another thing is surprising, namely, the fact 

 that stems disappear constantly and at a far greater rate than 

 one ever suspects. In the present case 4^3 % disappeared in less 

 than 6 years, and they could not have been illicitly cut in this 

 particular place. 



IV. — M. Demorlaine in La Vie Agricole has an article on the 

 reconstruction of the French forests. Leaving aside the forests 

 away from the zone of war, which, however, have of course 

 suffered greatly from over-exploitation, in spite of every care, he 

 divides the area directly affected by the war into two classes, 

 viz., a band of some 10 kilometres wide and 700 kilometres long, 

 where the armies were long embattled in a war of position, 

 and wherein the pre-existing forests have been completely 

 destroyed — the forests of the field of battle— and, secondly, two 

 bands of 10 kilometres wide on either side the first one, wherein 

 the operations of war required an immense utilisation of wood, 

 but where the forests have not co7npletely disappeared. A 

 band thirty kilometres in width is therefore considered by 

 M. Demorlaine. 



The field of battle is now a sea of huge pits where formerly 

 there were fields and woods, and altogether impossible to culti- 

 vate, and the boundaries of properties are quite lost. The 

 Reconstruction Service is resurveying all this country, and the 

 necessary levelling and cleaning operations are, it is believed, 

 to be carried out by the State; in fact the State— if we have 

 correctly understood — is taking over the entire reconstruction 

 of the area affected. For one thing, the danger to be anticipated 

 from unexploded shells renders it unwise for any but expert 

 persons to undertake the cleaning up. The humus in the 

 woods has been dissipated, and it is said that the devastated 

 agricultural land is now quite unculturable. In passing, is it 

 so certain that the upheavals caused by shell explosions is an 

 unmixed evil? We seem to have seen somewhere that the 

 pulverising of soil by explosives has an actual value. However 

 this may be, the French Reconstruction Service appears to be 

 going to afforest the agricultural lands (or a part of them) within 

 the area we are considering, with a view to restoring fertility to 

 the soil, thereafter returning to the proprietors such of them as 

 have not meanwhile been bought by the State. 



