172 TRANSACTIONS OF ROVAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



18. Visit to a French Private Forest. 



By F. Cowley-Brown, Indian Forest Service. 



The difficulties encountered in the management of the private 

 forests of France are in their nature not dissimilar to those with 

 which the Scottish owner is usually confronted. Some account 

 therefore of the methods adopted for the solution of the local 

 problems in France, and the degree of success attained, may 

 perhaps be of interest to British foresters. 



The small village of Paulmy lies about 25 miles to the 

 south of Tours in the Department of Indre et Loire. The well- 

 watered and somewhat flat landscape is occasionally broken 

 by rounded hills — for the most part clothed with forest. The 

 soil is very stiff" and inclined to clay with occasional intrusions 

 of lime. Much of it is doubtless of alluvial origin. It is 

 considered very fertile, but owing to the high level of the sub- 

 soil water, it is heavy and expensive to work. For this reason 

 oxen, and, it is said, even cows, are employed at the plough 

 during early spring ; but these are replaced by horses in the 

 summer when the ground is drier and lighter. 



Le Grand Bois de Paulmy — -some 1500 acres in extent — is 

 the property of the daughter of the late Comte de Stacpoole, 

 and formed part of the domain of the late Marquise d'Oyron, 

 who maintained the forest mainly for sporting purposes. It 

 contains very little game now owing to the depredations of 

 foxes, badgers, polecats and other vermin. The village lies 

 in a hollow, completely sheltered from wind by the surrounding 

 low hills, which are well covered with forest. The valley, 

 running east and west and traversed by a narrow-gauge railway, 

 naturally divides the forest into two blocks, north and south. 

 The latter, about 1000 acres in extent, is approximately double 

 the area of the former. The whole property — forest, farms, 

 offices, etc.^ — is in charge of the Regisseur Lucien Lalanne, 

 who is practically without assistance. Grazing is forbidden. 

 There are no rights, and practically no offences. 



The stock consists of Maritime pine, oak and hornbeam. 

 Spanish chestnut is also of occasional occurrence. Wherever 

 the overhead cover permits, the ground shows a dense 

 growth of broom and heather. The forest is divided into 17 

 felling areas or compartments of somewhat unequal size. 



