176 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTUK AL SOCIETY. 



Final fellings — the natural reproduction being " provoked," if 

 need be, by weedings during this period. Where the canopy is 

 at all complete the humus is magnificent, but the Regisseur 

 should be cautioned against too sudden or too heavy thinnings, 

 as the undergrowth is naturally so thick that the welfare of 

 young seedlings is always liable to be seriously imperilled by 

 any access of light that is not carefully graduated and controlled. 



The cost of exploitation both in the coppice and the high- 

 forest is gready enhanced by the dense thickets of broom and 

 heather that spring up unbidden wherever sufficiency of light 

 permits. Under the pine it is naturally less thick than in the 

 coppice ; and where the canopy of the former is complete, as 

 is usually the case, the ground is covered with a deep layer of 

 humus and needles, affording excellent promise for natural 

 reproduction when the cover is lightened. In places the pine 

 shows symptoms of the disease known locally in the Landes as 

 "seche"; and the remedy in vogue in that district should be at 

 once adopted here — viz., the area should be segregated by a 

 rectangular trench deep enough to cut even the lowest roots of 

 the stock affected. The risk of tire is considerable, but the 

 forest is fully insured against this danger — ;£^() being paid 

 annually for a policy of the value of ^6216. 



The question of future treatment must now be considered. 



Three years ago the writer advised the proprietress to obtain 

 the services of a resin-tapper from the Landes country for the 

 purpose of tapping the pine for resin, and to replace the oak by 

 hornbeam in the coppice areas, X subsequent visit and the 

 light of further experience has shown the necessity of modifying 

 these views. A tapper was obtained, and the experiment was 

 tried for a year. The quality and quantity of resin produced 

 was very satisfactory — a point of considerable importance, as 

 it was maintained by several French forest-officers, whom the 

 writer consulted, that the pine removed from the conditions 

 obtaining on the south-west coast of France would not yield 

 resin of a commercial quality, or in any considerable quantity. 

 Owing to the [)revalence of thi's theory tapping has scarcely 

 been attempted in the vast pine forests of the Riviera, although 

 it is effected on a large scale in the forests situated in the arid 

 plains between Vittoria and Madrid. But it was found at Paulmy 

 that the damage to the young growth, which was trampled down 

 in all directions by tlie tappers at work, assumed serious pro- 



