VISIT TO A FRENCH PRIVATE FOREST. 179 



scanty labour and supervision necessary for this delicate and 

 varied operation. As is always the case, the crop on each felling 

 area or portion of one must be carefully studied before the order 

 to touch a single one of its members can be given. There 

 is no rule of thumb, or even rule of book, to guide the operator. 

 The eye, trained by experience and controlled by the principles 

 of the object of management, alone can decide in each case. 

 The ideals to be kept in mind are a complete canopy above and 

 a carpet of humus below,— the connecting link being the clean 

 boles, — the dominated stems being left in just sufficient number to 

 clean the dominant, and not in such profusion as to choke them. 



It must be remembered that in an hour an injudicious 

 thinning can do incalculable harm, while an expert can in the 

 same brief period greatly improve the stock. Unfortunately, 

 there are already too many instances of the former class of 

 thinnings at Paulmy. A year or two ago, a contractor was 

 let loose in the forest, the result being an excess of light, 

 many branched stems, absence of humus and a plethora of 

 weeds and undergrowth. This can hardly be a matter for 

 wonder, for it is, not unnaturally, the aim of a contractor to 

 get as much as possible out of the area to be thinned — an 

 ambition diametrically opposed to the object of management 

 on which the thinnings should be based. 



Supervision and labour being so greatly limited, only the most 

 urgent cases can at present be treated, and these undoubtedly 

 lie in all the young pine felling areas, and next in the coppice 

 areas. The pine crops of over 25 years can well wait. But in 

 the next 5-8 years every young pine crop should be lightly 

 thinned, and the operation should be repeated every 5 years. 

 The thinnings can hardly be too frequent or too light, but heavy 

 and rare thinnings might be productive of as much harm as 

 good. Also the crop of mature trees near the railway (already 

 referred to) should be lightened at once. 



These prescriptions will probably involve a reduction in 

 revenue for the next 8 or 10 years — but. eventually, the apprecia- 

 tion of the property should be of a rapid and substantial nature. 

 Should it be considered necessary during this period to realise 

 capital for any definite purpose, a few of the older trees in the 

 mature blocks might be sold, but not any considerable number 

 of them, as in ten years at the outside (and as much sooner as 

 possible) the regular thinnings in the older blocks should 



