CONTINENTAL NOTES — FRANCE. 49 



presumed the author estimates the value from the amount of 

 wood formed.) Thus not only did the individual stems of A 

 produce more than those of B, but the total plot A produced 

 more than the total plot B. 



VII. The following is taken from a Swiss magazine : — 

 " Jardinage," or " Selection," as a method of treatment has been 

 reproached with the slowness of its regeneration and conse- 

 quent loss of growth. This, M. Biolley contends, is not a valid 

 criticism, for : 



1. If the regeneration comes slowly it is because it is 

 dominated by trees which themselves grow strongly, compen- 

 sating, and more than compensating, for any less quantity of 

 material that there may be in the regeneration under Selection, 

 when compared with that under other methods of treatment where 

 the seedling growth is more uncovered. 



2. The presence of this under-stage is very useful to the rate 

 of growth and quality of the trees of the upper stage. 



3. Further, this under-stage uses different layers of the soil, 

 and also of the atmosphere, thus the diffused light, unutilised in 

 uniform crops, is used by the under-stage of Selection. 



4. Loss of time is avoided, the trees which disappear being 

 replaced by substitutes which are there in advance. 



All this seems fairly sound if applied to a shade-bearing 

 species. Our author further claims that under this method the 

 soil conditions are ideal, since the soil, he says, is always friable, 

 moist and receptive, with a cover constant but allowing a certain 

 amount of light. He states that the conditions always allow of 

 more than sufficient regeneration, which is a repetition of 

 Gurnaud's contention that, in fact, with a method of treatment 

 like Selection there is no need to trouble about the regeneration, 

 which can take care of itself. 



M. Biolley is interesting in this connection when he points out 

 that of the two media from which a forest is built up, the soil 

 and the atmosphere, the latter has much the larger share. 

 He remarks, "We know that the forest does not exhaust the 

 soil, but, on the contrary, enriches it." 



M. Biolley contends (and quotes in this sense several notable 

 German authors) that the quality of timber grown under the 

 Selection method is superior to that of timber grown under 

 other methods. He argues that the slow^ growth of the earlier 

 years results in a hard heart, which is of value, but later on the 



VOL. XXIX. PART I. D 



