FOREST EXPLOITATION. 21 



Such was the Methode a tire et aire, associated by many 

 with the celebrated Ordinance of 1669 ; but sustained pro- 

 duction was not thereby secured. Forests continued to 

 disappear, and though this was attributable to abuses for 

 which the system was not responsible, it was remarked 

 that there was a great inequality in the products of suc- 

 cessive fellings during successive periods ; that there was 

 a considerable loss of possible produce not only from differ- 

 ence in the productiveness of different patches in the same 

 time, but more so from the circumstance that as some 

 portions were necessarily cut down when the trees were too 

 young, in other portions many trees, and even entire plots, 

 were left standing so long waiting for their turn that they 

 decayed before they came within the regular series of fellings. 



The succeeding crops, moreover, were not always found 

 equal in quantity to the preceding, while they were also 

 much inferior in quality in consequence of the irregularity 

 in regard to denseness in which they grew up in some 

 places sparse, in others so dense that they could neither 

 attain to good proportions nor acquire a 'firm texture. 

 These evils it was sought to remedy by giving to every 

 patch or plot in the forest the treatment it specially 

 required, combining those which were in like conditions 

 and conveniently situated, treating them as if they con- 

 stituted a continuous wood modifying the arrangement 

 of a tire et aire to meet the requirements of this develop- 

 ment of that system, and adding the products of thinnings 

 and partial fellings in patches or plots, in which these 

 were practised, to the products of the successive definitive 

 fellings in others, or rather adding these to those to com- 

 plete the supply required without preventing natural 

 reproduction and sustained production. 



In the accomplishment of this there are sundry opera- 

 tions necessary in any case, but more especially when it is 

 desired to secure all the advantages of the system. Cir- 

 cumstances may determine the order in which these may 

 be attended to, and it appears to me to be a matter of 

 indifference in what order I now detail them. 



