236 France. 



(etat (Tassiette) was prescribed annually by the grand 

 maitre for each garderie (district), and felling areas 

 were also, sometimes, but not always, definitely 

 located. Besides, extraordinary fellings might be 

 ordered. 



The garderies were divided into triages (now called 

 cantons), management classes or site classes under 

 different rotations, and the fellings proceeded in each 

 triage in sequence. 



In each felling area, as had supposedly been the 

 practice, at least 8 seed trees per acre, and generally 

 16, besides those under the diameter limit, were to 

 be left the method a tire et aire. 



Intermediary fellings thinnings were avoided and 

 frowned down upon, probably because of the abuses 

 to which they had given rise. Meanwhile their need 

 grew more and more, especially in those places where 

 the felling method did not produce satisfactory re- 

 generation, and softwoods impeded the development 

 of the better kinds. To improve the chances for 

 valuable regeneration and to keep the softwoods 

 down, the foresters proposed the reduction of rota- 

 tions from 100 to 50 and even 40 years, and, as with 

 each felling the number of reserve trees had to be 

 left, the forest assumed a form resembling the coppice 

 under standards. 



In the coniferous woods of the mountains (fir), 

 which in Colbert's time appear almost like a new 

 discovery to his reformers, the selection forest with 

 a diameter limit (e.g., 6 inch at the small end of the 

 21-foot log) was the method most generally in vogue, 

 and is still to a large extent the method in use, but 



