CONTINENTAL NOTES — FRANCE. 65 



spruce closely, and so get more out of their forest area than it 

 supplies at present. In view of the statement that the woods 

 are thin this step would probably multiply the outturn per acre 

 many times over. 



Difficulty is often experienced in removing long stems growing 

 on steep ground. Generally, they have to be cut to relatively 

 small lengths, which entails loss. Unless the number of stems is 

 large it will not pay to make a road, while " rieses " (as used in 

 the Tyrol) or sledge roads also require made roads of a kind. 

 They cannot be used for very long timber, and not at all in very 

 rocky ground. In the Pyrenees they have lately conquered the 

 difficulty, and rendered forests on slopes which are almost 

 precipitous exploitable by means of ropes. After the stem has 

 been cleared of branches, two ropes, ordinarily of thin steel wire, 

 are attached to one end and then passed round standing trees 

 in the vicinity. The log is then let down gradually, but much 

 skill is required in the letting out of the ropes. Very heavy 

 stems, or even two stems joined end to end, can be lowered down 

 the steepest places. The aim is to make the timber travel 

 continuously without check on obstacles and without getting out 

 of hand. The steel wire rope cannot be worked directly by hand, 

 but needs one or two small steel levers of a special pattern to be 

 attached to the tree round which the rope is passed. These levers 

 have a half ring or claw through which the rope runs, and are 

 alternately slightly lifted or dropped as is found necessary for 

 giving out or holding back the rope. Lengths of loo, 200, or 

 300 yards are thus used, and since this means a considerable 

 weight when the rope has to be brought up-hill, a small wheel 

 and axle for winding it is attached to a tree at the top of the 

 slope. 



It is useful to make exact observations of the course of a 

 fungoid attack, and we find a careful note on an attack of 

 Lophodermium Finasfrt, by M. Maire, the Director of the forests 

 of Eu and Aumale. He observed the attack at three points in 

 his coniferous woods, and describes it as follows: — No. 1 — a 

 clear-felled compartment of 15^ acres was sown with Scots pine 

 seed from Austria, in 1898, with perfect success. The attack 

 began in 1904 — so badly that the place looked as if it had been 

 burnt. The leaves first turned yellow, then red, and then all fell. 

 No stems died the first year ; only a few the second ; many the 

 third; a few the fourth; and very few the fifth. Altogether 



VOL. XXIV. PART I. E 



