l6o TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



The Forest Commission has examined about 500 species of 

 West African woods. It finds that the objections raised as to 

 splitting, warping, etc., are unfounded, provided the seasoning 

 is properly done ; these woods must be more thoroughly dried 

 than is usual for European species. Another mistake is to 

 suppose that these colonial woods are not durable. There are 

 colonial timbers in houses near Bordeaux which are in excellent 

 condition, though a century old. It is difficult to get the trade 

 to move in a new direction like this, but it has, nevertheless, 

 made a beginning by picking out twenty-four species, under 

 seven categories of requirements, which are considered suitable 

 for the purposes of Europe. The French Commission has 

 evidently difficulties very similar to our own. 



III. — In these notes, in a former number of the Transactions, 

 we gave the history of a coppice-with-standards coupe of 7-23 

 hectares, in which the details of the standards cut and reserved 

 between 1844 and 19 19 were recorded. This showed an increase 

 under both heads. M. Schaeflfer now gives us similar details 

 for as much as 112,000 hectares of coppice in the Haute Saone 

 between 1883 and 1921, which also show very remarkable 

 increases in both standards reserved and standards cut, as 

 follows : — 



In spite of the markedly larger number cut the increase in 

 the number left standing is very great — in the larger categories 

 nearly double. This means, for the 112,000 hectares, an 

 augmentation of four to five million stems. It is clear, too, 

 that the regime of coppice is more and more fading away, and 

 that they are coming to rely more and more on their standards, 

 of which they are steadily reserving more at each marking. 

 Thus we have good reason for optimism in regard to the 



