2 6 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



4. Notes on the Forests of Auvergne. 



By R. Maclagan Gorrie, B.Sc, I.F.S. 



General Conditions. 



The district of the Puy de Dome is remarkable for the variety 

 of forest scenery which it can provide within a comparatively 

 small area, for the volcanic deposits have combined with the 

 climate to produce almost every imaginable type of woodland, 

 from the hardwoods of the rich alluvial soils of the sheltered 

 valleys up to the Alpine conditions around the slopes of the 

 Monts Dore, on which the hardiest conifer has a desperate fight 

 against the dangers of keen frost, heavy snowfall, erosion above 

 the altitude limit of tree-growth, and the resultant avalanches. 

 The climate of this region is so severe that the conditions and 

 the flora correspond with those found in the Alps at an altitude 

 2000 feet higher, where the vast chains of mountains in them- 

 selves form a barrier behind which tree-growth can flourish at 

 much higher levels than in the isolated and exposed Auvergne. 



The relationship between agriculture and forestry is here a 

 close and an interesting one, for the large agricultural population 

 is dependent on the forests for many of its requirements. On 

 the typical moorland small-holdings of the western area of the 

 Puy de Dome Department, it is often essential for the men and 

 their families to find forest employment during the winter 

 season, and for this reason the progressive policy of afforestation 

 on many of these moorlands should be pushed forward. An 

 officer has been appointed by the Departement des Eaux et 

 Forets to take up this work, and the success of the existing 

 plantations and the benefits they have brought to the community 

 is an argument in favour of the same policy in Scotland, where 

 the conditions over large areas are almost identical with those 

 found around d'Herment. 



The policy of maintaining small forest blocks under State 

 control, which is usually condemned as being unsound economic- 

 ally, is here proved to be invaluable. Many small areas of 

 woods owned by communes, sections of communes, or small 

 landowners and farmers, are kept under State supervision at a 

 very low charge payable by the owners, thus ensuring sound silvi- 

 cultural management and preventing the overfelling which would 



