CONTINENTAL NOTES — FRANCE. 5 I 



to slip might, one would think, be very suitably treated in this 

 way. As a shooting cover, however, the thorny character of 

 Robinia would be an inconvenience, nor could it grow under any 

 overhead cover. A thin soil over chalk cannot be negotiated 

 by the help of Robinia. M. Jolyet thinks the species would be 

 usefully employed to cheapen the cost of raising conifers, using 

 the latter sparsely among the Robinia, which would be destined 

 to extinction when the conifers grew, but it seems doubtful 

 whether the light-crowned Robinia would sufficiently clean the 

 stems of the conifers. 



IX. The forest of Compiegne, with the adjoining forest of 

 Laigue, the scene of so much recent fighting, is an enormous 

 mass of woodland — some 50,000 acres — and there are a 

 number of other large forests close by, as Villers Cotterets, Retz, 

 and St Gobain. Compiegne was, till 1870, a Crown appanage, 

 and used for sport, and to this day deer and rabbits are very 

 abundant — so much so that in this ** inspection " the annual 

 expenditure on protection against rabbits runs up to some 

 ;^iooo. The species are oak, beech and hornbeam, with 

 some areas of Scots pine and spruce. The spring frosts are 

 so bad as to make seed years scarce. The working-plan, as 

 revised in 1900, divides the area into two parts, the "quartier 

 bleu " and the " quartier blanc." The first comprises all the 

 compartments to be regenerated during the current period (20 

 years) ; the second consists of all the rest, where only thinnings 

 take place. The " possibility " is by volume, and the officer in 

 charge may take trees to make up this amount from any point 

 within the blue quarter where cultural considerations most call 

 for a felling. Formerly there was not the same elasticity, and 

 either areas were subjected to fellings when not at a suitable 

 point for regeneration, or fellings urgently required by the 

 condition of the young crop had to be withheld because the 

 position was not the one comtemplated by the regulations. 

 There is now also a further unusual prescription in the direction 

 of elasticity. There are ten working-sections, each, normally, to 

 be worked as a separate uni^t, but, in order to fit cultural 

 requirements, it is even permitted to make transfers in the 

 amounts annually cut between the several sections, provided 

 always that the total of the " possibilities " of the ten sections 

 added together is not exceeded. 



X. The old forest school of Vallombrosa has been done away 



