v sARtAGE" IN 



the rouvre, of all forest trees sustains best the treatment 

 of Sartage. In the Ardennes, the coppice woods, which 

 are so treated, which are situated generally on a slope, and 

 growing on a soil composed largely of slate schist, are 

 composed almost exclusively of the rouvre oak, which, in 

 these circumstances, yields excellent firewood and char- 

 coal, yields very good workable wood in such trees as are 

 reserved for mature growth, and, above all, produces bark 

 of the first quality. 



In connection with this last-mentioned circumstance, it 

 may be stated that the quality of bark is in general good 

 in proportion as the thickness of the liber or inner bark is 

 more considerable compared to the cortical layers and the 

 epiderm, in botanical phrase, in proportion as the endo* 

 phlcRum is thick in proportion to the mesophlaeum and the 

 epiphlaeum, for the tannin is deposited chiefly in the endo- 

 phlceum, inner bark, or liber. Now this portion of the bark 

 is developed more largely in proportion as the process of 

 vegetation is rapid, and as the wood is young. These two 

 circumstances being combined in the coppice wood sub- 

 jected to Sartage, it is reasonable to conclude that the bark 

 obtained from such woods will be of superior quality ; and 

 thus can we account for the fact observed. 



To such an extent is this fact the case that the bark 

 and the cereals constitute the products which are con- 

 sidered the most important of those of the coppice woods 

 thus treated. And it is the interest of the proprietor to 

 have those woods cut down constantly after from 15 to 25 

 years' growth. 



To prepare for the Sartage, the soil is stript bare 

 stript to the surface of herbage and turf; the wood having 

 been barked while the spring sap was weak, and the wood 

 having been carried off in the usual way, all chips, twigs, 

 refuse, and debris are spread over the ground. The quantity 

 thus spread is considerable, as in woods subjected to Sartage 

 they do not make faggots, but cord only the wood exceed* 

 ing somewhere about twenty-five millimetres, or one inch 

 in diameter, and that whether it be designed for use ad fire- 



