CONTINENTAL NOTES— FRAN'CE. 63 



mountain and the Weymouth pines, the Nordmann, the Douglas, 

 and the Sitka firs, and Picea nli>a, have been introduced, and 

 do well in certain situations. Picea alba is used for shelter-belts; 

 Sitka is used on drained land, but its very superficial roots (says 

 the report) render it frost-tender. This does not seem to agree 

 with one's usual notion that it is capable of standing much 

 exposure. The author states that the mixture very commonly 

 met with, of Scots pine, spruce and birch, is very good. If the 

 felling has been badly made, one or other of the species will fill 

 up the blanks ; and if well made, it is possible to localise each 

 species in the station best suited to it, and so to get the most out 

 of the area. The combination of spruce and Scots pine is so 

 common that it is very usual to mix the stems, which are then 

 bought locally as if they were identical. The methods of 

 treatment are— either clear felling without replanting and trusting 

 to neighbouring woods for natural regeneration, a method that 

 has had bad results ; or the leaving of twenty to forty seed- 

 bearers per acre till the regeneration is complete, an excellent 

 method for the pine, but unsuitable for the easily thrown 

 spruce ; or the Group method ; or ordinary Selection. Peri- 

 dermium pint and Femes a?i/iosus cause damage in the warmer 

 parts near the sea, and red rot is common in the spruce. 

 Very little road making is done, because export is carried on 

 over the snow as far as the rivers, down which the wood is 

 floated. A great deal of drainage is done with good results. 

 A 47-year-old tree is mentioned of which the section showed 

 40 years for less than a quarter of the radius, and more 

 than three-quarters of it for the remaining 7 years that 

 followed the draining of the soil. The exploitable age of the 

 Norwegian State forests is based on the time required to 

 produce the greatest volume, which makes for simplicity. 

 The rotation is thus from 60 to 100 years, corresponding 

 to from 6 to 12 inches diameter (at chest-height, it is 

 supposed). Working-plans are rare in the private forests, and 

 one supposes that the millions of pit props that come to us 

 from the Baltic must come from private forests. However, 

 some may come from thinnings in State forests, which are 

 correctly made. In passing, one may be excused from wondering 

 why we should not grow at least a fair proportion of our own 

 pit props. There is in fact no reason against it. 



The transport of timber to the rivers is done in a variety of 



