160 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY. 



because, in the first place, it seems preferable to grow the 

 beech as a timber forest, and for private proprietors, who 

 possess forests of this tree, as coppice with seed-yielding 

 standards. If the standards are cut early enough, they 

 will not injure the uncfcei wood they overtop, especially if 

 the rotation is sufficiently long, and they will shed seed 

 by which the growing stock will be kept full. Moreover, 

 although Furetage has hitherto preserved beech coppices 

 in a more or less satisfactory condition, it presents many 

 disadvantages. Thus it is exceedingly difficult to cut a 

 certain number of shoots in a clump without injuring the 

 rest ; and in any case the labour is more costly. Besides 

 this, cutting up the wood is not so easy when the shoots 

 left standing are to be preserved from injury; and it is 

 necessary either to remove the former on men's backs, or 

 to allow carts to come in among the standing crops a 

 proceeding which is necessarily productive of damage.' 



M. Guinier may allege that he has devised a method of 

 securing the good without the evil. And I know of a 

 modification of Furetage similar to what he advocates 

 being carried out advantageously in the government of 

 Ufa, near the Ural Mountains in Russia. 



In order to the full understanding of what has been 

 stated, there may be needed some knowledge of what is 

 called Taillis sous Futaie. Besides different methodes of 

 exploitation, there are different regimes of culture : there 

 is coppice culture, and timber culture, and there is a 

 culture of coppice wood in connection with the culture of 

 timber forests. This last is the regime referred to, and the 

 modified Furetage differs from the mode of exploitation 

 usually followed in Taillis sous Futaie : being designed to 

 avoid some of the disadvantages attaching to this as well 

 as disadvantages attaching to simple Furetage. I have a 

 clearer conception of what is common to both than I have 

 of the points in which in practice they are essentially 

 different; and yet I deem it of some importance here 

 that the coppice culture and management in question 



