162 MODERN FOREST ECONOMY, 



appear. The reproductive power of the stump becomes 

 exhaustive of the reserve of aliment which they contain. 

 The shoots then come to be progressively weakened, and 

 the crops are not slow to disappear, if seed sowings do not 

 come to meet the deficit occasioned by the death of the 

 shoots ; and here begins to appear what is the cause of 

 the disappearance of the oak. The seeds of the yoke-elm, 

 the seeds of the bois Uancs [white woods a designation 

 given to alders, limes, poplars, and willows], and the seeds 

 of the maple are light ; they readily disseminate them- 

 selves; the young plants which proceed from them are 

 robust, and can bear the shade. The acorns are heavy, 

 and the young plants of the oak dread the shade. Thus, 

 on the one band, there is inferiority in the power of 

 dissemination, and a greater demand in regard to light ; 

 while the secondary kinds of trees, on the other hand, are 

 more numerous, and easily stifle the young oaks under 

 their shade, and tend to substitute themselves for these.' 



The author then adverts to the demand which there is 

 for oak-bark, and to the bearing of this upon the point 

 under consideration the progressive disappearance of the 

 oak. At the risk of laying myself open to a charge of 

 wandering from my subject, I shall follow him, believing 

 that the information may not be unacceptable to some of 

 my readers. But before doing so, I remark that the seed 

 of the beech, of which alone it is that M. Guinier speaks, 

 is not so heavy as that of the oak ; it may, therefore, be 

 more extensively diffused, and the early growth of the 

 seedling may enable it to make good its footing where an 

 oakling might fail. M. de la Grye goes on to say : 



' But that is not all. The oak is the tree which, of all 

 our indigenous productions, yields a bark the most suitable 

 for use in tanning ; everywhere where there are oak copse- 

 woods that are exploited with a view to the production of 

 bark. In order to this they are felled when the sap is in 

 movement that is the munth of May, and in order to 



