54 



FOREST STATISTICAL DATA 



Management Statistics. Unquestionably the management of French 

 State forests is over-conservative. No systematic attempt has been 

 made to follow financial rotations. There have been excess growing 

 stocks, 3 due in many cases to over-careful working plans that followed an 

 era of overcutting. In communal forests, managed by the State, this 

 excess is usually 25 per cent and often more. As contrasted with those 

 publicly managed, the forests in private hands are managed on shorter 

 rotations and far too great an acreage is in coppice, or coppice-under- 

 standards. As an illustration of this tendency to short rotations we 

 find eight-tenths of the private forests in coppice or coppice-under- 

 standards, no-tenths in conversion, and only two-tenths in high forest. 

 With State forests five-tenths in high forest, three-tenths in coppice 

 and coppice-under-standards, and two-tenths in conversion. 



This variance in the length of rotations is further illustrated by the de- 

 tailed statistics for each department. Take some typical examples: 



VOSGES (CONIFERS) 



For the high forests under State control the prevalent rotation is 144 

 years, while notable State forests like Gerardmer, Ban d'Etival, la Bresse, 

 Cornimont, and Champ have 150-year rotations. 



SAVOIE (HAUTE) (CONIFERS) 



Length of rotation in years 



3 For example, in the State forest of Berce (Sarthe) there are compartments with 700 

 to 800 cubic meters of oak to the hectare, worth 30,000 to 40,000 francs. In the forest of 

 Levier silver fir runs as high as 1,000 cubic meters per hectare, or 25,000 francs, on soil 

 worth 100 to 200 francs per hectare. 



