CONTINENTAL NOTES — FRANCE. 63 



with the cold, when they can be easily collected and destroyed. 

 This tree, it appears, can itself survive attack from the grub in 

 consequence of its faculty of throwing out rootlets just below the 

 collar to replace those that have been eaten off. Cockchafers 

 are indeed a tremendous curse when they swarm, which they do 

 in cycles. They go for purposes of egg-laying to freshly turned 

 earth, as in nurseries or fields, and some think, therefore, that 

 nurseries should be made far inside a forest area. 



V. It is often desired to introduce conifers into coppice-under- 

 standards with the view of an eventual complete transformation 

 into conifers. This has been done successfully on the first 

 plateau of the Jura, among the coppices with somewhat shallow 

 soil, and silver fir has been used. At this place the silver will 

 not thrive with less than 24 inches of rain, nor below 500 metres 

 (1640 feet), but obviously this altitude may be greatly reduced 

 in higher latitudes. In the case in point, the method was to 

 abandon at once the coppice method and to substitute for it 

 thinnings at lo-year intervals, removing all the standards in the 

 first thinning. This looks like eating up the capital rapidly, but 

 circumstances might sometimes justify the proceeding. Were 

 spruce or Douglas used the thinning would have to be heavier, 

 while in the latter case the soil must not be shallow. 



The matter is one of importance to us in Britain, because 

 there are now so many coppices that have lost all value. M. Cuif, 

 one of the Research officers at Nancy, is strongly in favour of 

 the silver fir for this purpose. It can easily be brought into a 

 thinned coppice — far more easily than other conifers. The 

 process of removing the coppice should be gradual, because of 

 the frost-tenderness of the silver. More than any other this 

 species will stand the shade and cover of the coppice. After the 

 plant has reached about 6 feet in height the spring frosts do not 

 matter. M, Cuif says that the silver fir stands drought better 

 than the spruce, and is perhaps the least touched by insects and 

 fungi of all the conifers. One needs great patience, however, 

 for the growth is dreadfully slow up to about 14 years of age, 

 though after that the species goes ahead, and will produce more 

 timber than any other European species (Schlich). 



As an example of what may be done in substituting very good 

 silver fir for bad coppice (which in this case meant also thin soil) 

 M. Cuif quotes a plantation near Nancy. The place is very cold 

 in winter and very hot in summer. The present crop comes from 



