CHAPTER V 1 

 NATURAL REGENERATION 



FRENCH POLICY (p. 65). General, Nancy School Policy, Assist Nature, Study Soil 

 Conditions, Soil Preparation. 



FRENCH SILVICULTURAL METHODS (p. 70). Systems of Cutting, The Market. 



HIGH FOREST SYSTEMS (p. 71). Clear Cutting Oak, Clear Cutting Maritime Pine, 

 Clear Cutting Aleppo Pine, Spruce Strip Fellings, Shelterwood Cuttings in Oak, Seed 

 Felling, Secondary Felling, Final Felling, Shelterwood for Beech, Shelterwood for Oak- 

 Beech, Shelterwood for Maritime Pine, Shelterwood for Scotch Pine, Shelterwood for 

 Fir, Shelterwood for Spruce, Shelterwood for Fir and Spruce in Mixture, The Selection 

 System in Broadleaf Stands (Beech), Fir Selection Fellings, Spruce Selection Fellings, 

 Selection Fellings for Scotch and Aleppo Pine, Group Selection for Fir or Spruce, Group 

 Selection for Larch (and other methods), Treatment for Scenic Forests. 



COPPICE SYSTEMS (p. 92). General, Simple Coppice, Coppice with Field Crops, 

 Selection Coppice (Beech), Coppice-Under-Standards, A Substitute for Coppice-Under- 

 Standards (Futaie Claire), Conversions. 



CARE OF THE STAND AFTER REGENERATION (p. 105). Intermediate Cuttings, Clean- 

 ing (and Freeing) Young Stands, Thinnings, Improvement Fellings. 



FRENCH POLICY 



General. The French forester has always been a close student of 

 soil conditions, seed crops, and methods of seed germination, because his 

 ideal has always been to obtain the natural regeneration of forests. 

 And to-day high labor costs will make artificial forestation almost pro- 

 hibitive. It has been argued that natural regeneration is the more 

 costly in the end, because to regenerate forests naturally took 15 to 20 

 years or more and that even then the results were unsatisfactory. But 

 in France, with a mild climate, plenty of rainfall, rich soil, and species 

 that produce seed crops in abundance, natural regeneration has succeeded 

 and will be continued, except when normal forest conditions must be 

 restored in the devastated war zones and where the damages of past over- 

 cutting have not yet been completely repaired. 



The French forester is a student of nature. For generations he has 

 been taught "Imiter la nature, hater son ceuvre, telle est la maxime 

 fondamentale de la sylviculture." His simplest problem is where he can 

 clear-cut the entire stand and yet secure his second crop without plant- 

 ing; his difficulties increase as the cuttings must be varied in degree and 

 in number so as to tempt the next generation of trees to gain a footing 



1 Professor Hawley kindly reviewed this chapter. 

 65 



