FOREST EXPLOITATION IN UFA. 33 



which have for their object to protect the interests of the 

 regeneration of beech copse woods, which is a complex 

 and delicate task ; it is impossible to condense these rules 

 into a formula simple, brief, and precise, which may be 

 applicable without peril to innumerable cases in practice. 

 It is, moreover, sufficient that the agents who have to 

 manage beech copse woods should know the end they have 

 to keep before them ; it is then for them, from the 

 resources supplied by their preparation and experience, to 

 find out the means of accomplishing this applicable to the 

 circumstances of each case. 



4. It should be borne in mind that treatment as a 

 timber forest is that alone which properly suits the beech, 

 and even the partisans of Furetage can scarcely consider 

 this method of exploitation as other than provisional, and 

 one which ought only to be applied pending the transfor- 

 mation of the coppice wood into a timber forest, which 

 should be the end of all foresters. What good, then, can 

 be expected from seeking at great trouble to modify the 

 existing order of things ? 



Having replied to these several objections, M. Guinier 

 states what he has to recommend, premising, however, 

 that inasmuch as it admits the reservation of balliveaux, 

 or seed-bearing standards, it is questionable whether the 

 designation Furetage would still be applicable. And he 

 expresses a kind of preference for another designation ; he 

 says: ' I believe we must surrender the name. As a 

 matter of fact, the principle of Furetage is the removal of 

 the shoots which are in a dominant state and the constitu- 

 tion of a reserve taken, except occasionally, from the 

 dominated shoots. And if we in principle prescribe the 

 constitution of a reserve, more or less abundant, chosen 

 from the dominating productions, we resume the principle 

 of Taillis sous futaie copse as the under-growth of a 

 timber forest ; and whatever may be the proportions of 

 the two constituents, a felling must present the aspect of 

 one adapted to that mode of growth.' 



D 



