CONTINENTAL NOTES — FRANCE. 4 1 



7. Continental Notes— France. 



By A. G. Hobakt-Hampde.n. 



I. The natural regeneration of the spruce, even at moderate 

 altitudes, is extremely capricious, sometimes being so abundant 

 as to be positively invasive, at others altogether lacking. At 

 high altitudes it is extremely difficult, and M. Schaefifer, the head 

 of the Working-Plans Branch in Haute Savoie, thinks there may 

 be a connection between this and the apparent lowering of the 

 upper limit of tree-growth. It is undoubted that the conifers have 

 descended and supplanted the broad-leaved species. For one 

 thing, the streams carry the seed down. In the Jura, Vosges, 

 Pyrenees and Savoy this has happened. At the beginning of 

 modern times the forest of Joux (near Pontarlier, it is believed ?) 

 was an oak forest, but it is now coniferous. M. Schaeffer 

 suggests that what the spruce gains below it may be losing 

 above, a sort of automatic law of migration. M. Moreillon, a 

 Swiss forester, states that in the high Jura natural regeneration 

 of the spruce is only found, either under branchy silver fir, 

 where only about half as much snow falls as in the open, or on 

 the stumps of trees that have been cut high, or upon the trunks 

 of fallen trees, or, finally, upon hummocks of earth where the snow 

 is less deep and whence it disappears quickly. Accordingly he 

 thinks that the abundance and persistence of the snow is the 

 cause of the difficulty in regeneration at these altitudes. At 

 high altitudes the vegetable soil is often peaty, a condition very 

 unfavourable to spruce seedlings. The resin in the fallen 

 needles of conifer woods prevents their decomposition, and the 

 incompleteness of the decomposition is the determining cause of 

 the formation of peaty humus. This fact, it seems to me, is 

 worthy of note by ourselves, since we often find ourselves 

 engaged in the removal of old conifer woods having a bad soil 

 of a peaty description, with a view to replanting the same area. 

 One gathers that it might be well to allow a certain period to 

 elapse between the felling and the replanting, so as to give time 

 for the decomposition of the humus by exposure to sun and 

 wind. Of course, doing this will give a start to the weeds, 

 but this can be met by using large plants and clearing them 

 afterwards from overgrowing weeds for a time. 



M. Mathey, a conservator of forests, has also dealt with this 



