234 France. 



A first class attempt to secure more conservative 

 forest use and to regulate the cut was made by Henry 

 IV in instituting a commission, and, as a result of its 

 report, issuing his general order of Rouen, in 1597, a 

 highly interesting document giving insight into con- 

 ditions and opinions of the foresters of that period. 

 It also remained without any result whatsoever. 



Repeated replacement of the higher officials had no 

 more effect than the issuance of ordinances. 



Not until Colbert's vigorous reform in 1669 came 

 a change in conditions. 



Meanwhile, some forestry notions had been de- 

 veloped: a sequence of felling areas in the coppice, and 

 hence an area division, an idea of rotation and of 

 the exploitable age (10 to 20 years, although some- 

 times down to 3 and 4 years), the leaving of over- 

 wood, which became obligatory in the royal domain, 

 and a kind of regulation of its age (40 years too 

 short according to one writer of the time to furnish 

 valuable trees), and some proper considerations of its 

 selection. 



In the timber forest, the fellings proceeded by area 

 in regular order from year to year, leaving a pre- 

 scribed number of marked seed trees, at least 6 to 8 

 per acre, on such areas as were outside the rights of 

 user and removed from the likelihood of depreda- 

 tions; the felling age being at least 100 years, under 

 the notion that the oak, the most favored species, 

 "grows for one hundred years, keeps vigorous but 

 stands still for another hundred, and declines in a 

 third hundred." Sowing of acorns on prepared 

 ground was also ordered in the 16th century, and per- 



