Silvicultural Practice. 235 



haps occasionally done. Young growths were some- 

 times protected by ditches or fences against cattle, 

 although objections were raised against the former 

 as impeding the chase. A diameter limit sometimes 

 reserved all oak and beech two feet in circumference 

 at six inches from the ground, the height of the stump. 

 Even improvement cuttings (called recepages) are on 

 record in Normandie, mainly for the purpose of cut- 

 ting out softwoods and freeing the young valuable 

 reproduction, repeated in decennial returns. Later, 

 thinnings assumed the character of selection fellings 

 and, indeed, received the name of jardinage. They 

 were continued until the time for final cut and re- 

 generation had arrived. In the coniferous mountain 

 forests, selection cutting, pure and simple, was the rule. 



It appears, then, that quite sane notions of silvi- 

 culture existed, albeit they may not have been very 

 generally and very strictly carried out. Especially 

 during the 16th century, the maladministration of 

 the royal domain brought with it a decadence of the 

 practice in the woods; the area of the coppice in- 

 creased by clear cutting at the expense of the timber 

 forest, and, by Colbert's time, all forestry knowledge 

 had wellnigh become forgotten. 



The forest ordinance of 1669 attempted to reform 

 not only the administrative abuses but to improve 

 the method of exploitation hitherto practised; at 

 least it put in writing, codified as it were, the best 

 usage of the time. A commission of 21 was instituted 

 to make working plans and prescribe the practice. 



The prescriptions had reference both to manage- 

 ment and silvicultural practice. A felling budget 



