NOTES ON THE FORESTS OF AUVERGNE. 3 1 



Strict supervision, and in many of the privately owned hill 

 forests the tree-growth of spruce and silver fir is of very poor 

 "form-factor" with a conical stem and branches down to the 

 ground, such as is frequently seen on the summer pastures of 

 the Swiss Jura. 



(it.) Improved Selection. — In the majority of the forests visited, 

 the Selection system as applied to tolerant species such as 

 silver fir, beech, and spruce, is obviously the best means of 

 maintaining woodland on exposed hill-slopes. The normal 

 Selection forest " picture " is one containing representatives of 

 each age-class on every section of the ground, but the tendency 

 is now towards working in groups of trees. This has the two- 

 fold object of preventing excessive felling damage by con- 

 centrating the working, and of favouring young growth which 

 can best be encouraged by opening the canopy gradually above 

 suitable centres of advanced growth. 



Each division of the forest is visited once in every cycle of 

 10-15 years, and the one felling operation carries out all the 

 cultural work which is necessary to free the young growth, thin 

 out close groups of young poles, commence the preparatory 

 cuttings to obtain regeneration, and provide the major part 

 of the annual timber output by cutting out the mature trees 

 whenever the young growth is firmly established. The rotation 

 usual in these forests is 150 years, and the mature trees of this 

 age should have a girth of 2 metres or over. The planks which 

 such logs provide find a ready sale for every type of con- 

 struction work, the current price being 36 fr. per cub. metre of 

 squared logs. 



D. — Other Species. 



An outstanding point in the Foret d'Herment was the 

 fine, clean stems and superabundance of natural regeneration 

 amongst the Weymouth pine, which had been introduced 

 at the same time as the original plantation of Scots pine. 

 Nevertheless, owing to the lack of sale locally for this wood, 

 which is very soft until after it has attained its sixtieth year, 

 it has found no favour and its cultivation is being dropped 

 in favour of other species whose regeneration is a much more 

 difficult business. In Britain a large price is paid for this 

 timber brought from America, and it is much used in making 

 patterns for metal castings. In Switzerland, also, Weymouth 



