50 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



treatment allows of faster growth, the stems being more isolated, 

 and thus able to utilise the atmosphere more freely. So far as 

 quality goes this fast growth is not advantageous, as we know, 

 for coniferous timber, though quantity perhaps makes up for this. 



M. Biolley is not convincing when he attempts to argue 

 against the contention that Selection-worked forests connote much 

 damage in exploitation. The great reason, in my opinion, why 

 this damage is serious is that the trees are of all sizes, so that 

 trees when felled smash, in considerable numbers, those of some- 

 what smaller sizes around them ; young growth does not suffer 

 to the same extent as stems of intermediate classes, from 

 saplings upwards. There are, of course, other objections to 

 Selection, as, for example, the fact that stems around a gap 

 made for purposes of regeneration twist and turn to get to the 

 light, and so grow crooked — at least in the case of broad- 

 leaved species ; and again, that stems are less well cleaned of 

 their side branches than under other systems of treatment. 



VIII. M. Jolyet has more to say upon the Robinia. In the 

 Haute Saone they are taking more and more to the formation of 

 meadows for raising stock, and the fences are of wire attached 

 to stakes, about 6^ feet long with a diameter of 5 to 7 inches 

 at the small end. These are made of Robinia, untreated with 

 antiseptics, which last longer than anything else, even than oak. 

 To obtain such stakes a coppice rotation of 15 to 20 years is 

 sufficient. To get good growth a sandy and deep soil is required ; 

 still the Robinia will grow in other soils also, and, if the object 

 is to cover bare ground quickly, the strong tendency of the species 

 to throw up root suckers comes in very effectively. Even in 

 thin soils the roots spread in all directions superficially, and 

 after the original stems are cut the whole intervening ground 

 becomes covered with these root suckers. M. Jolyet speaks ot 

 cutting the original stems at 10 years. This phenomenon of the 

 production of numerous root suckers as soon as the parent 

 stem is cut is not peculiar to the Robinia ; the writer has seen it 

 most strikingly demonstrated with the Shisham {Dalbcrgia 

 Sissoo) in India. One wonders why this physiological fact is not 

 more often utilised to cover bare ground quickly and closely. 

 If a loose bank, for example, were planted with Robinia (or other 

 species of similar faculty), and the stems cut back after a few 

 years, a rapid close covering of the soil, and a network of 

 binding roots, should result. Railway banks with a tendency 



