494 APPENDIX 



individual parts of the country figures on the conditions of site stand, and market will 

 be found very different. For the conservation of Tours, which forms part of the forests 

 visited, the yield per hectare was: in the State forest, 40.59 francs ($3.17 per acre) for 

 coppice with standards; 44.83 francs ($3.50 per acre) for conversion stands; 64.35 francs 

 ($5.13 per acre) for broad leaf (Angiosperms) high forest; in the communal forest, 44.21 

 francs ($3.45 per acre) for coppice with standards, 63.68 francs ($4.98 per acre) for 

 high forest. 



How little timber the French coppice with standards produces as a whole is evident 

 from Tassy's summary, where he says of it: "In a normal coppice with standards stand 

 the overwood constitutes not more than a third of the volume of the annual cut; and 

 if we grant that in the overwood a half yields timber we are giving it just as much as 

 possible. So if I place the timber at one-sixth the volume cut I need not be accused of 

 trying to reduce the ratio." The following estimate, based on this, shows that of 13 

 million cubic meters (460,000,000 cubic feet) produced by French coppice with standards 

 stands, only 2j million cubic meters (88,000,000 cubic feet) can be sold as timber. 

 In the department of agriculture's statistics the per cents of timber for the fiscal year 

 1876 are given as follows: For State coppice with standards, 23 per cent; for communal, 

 12 per cent; for State high forest, 51 per cent; for communal, 42 per cent. 



From what has been said there can be no question that the system of coppice with 

 standards does not meet the economic demands which must be made of forest manage- 

 ment in France. It was, as in Germany, of importance in the past. As long as fire- 

 wood was a prime necessity for the entire population wood was needed in proportionately 

 small sizes, and since in most forest regions there were insurmountable difficulties in the 

 way of timber traffic it formed a very good system of management for those woodlands 

 located near the consumers. Hence we find the following note to the department's 

 statistics, concerning communal forests: "It must be appreciated that for this kind of 

 forest ownership, it is a very suitable system. Furnishing the inhabitants, as it does, 

 with a variety of species and kinds of wood it meets their requirements better than does 

 the high forest." But the character of the demands made upon the woodlands has 

 suffered a radical change in the course of the 19th century. In all essential respects 

 coppice with standards is inferior to the high forest; in its relations to the soil as well 

 as in its bearings on yield. For maintaining soil fertility coppice with standards is 

 not an especially commendable silvicultural system. The mere fact that those species 

 which form the best soil cover do not occur in it is a factor of unfavorable influence. 

 Likewise the difficulty of amalgamating overwood and underwood into a uniform 

 canopy. More important yet are its economic shortcomings. It stands in opposition 

 to the general economic principle that with progressive development of the cultivation 

 of the land, all management must be more intensively conducted, and at a greater outlay 

 of labor and capital. The kinds most demanded by the French economic conditions, 

 loppings and wood for splitting (Schneide- und Spaltholz), are produced only in very 

 small quantities. It is, therefore, to the general economic interests of the country that 

 the stands of coppice with standards be changed over into high forest as quickly as the 

 financial condition of the owners permits. This is recognized as the right principle even 

 in France. As far as the State forests are concerned the change has already been 

 effected over large areas, and is to a great extent in progress elsewhere. The 1876 

 statistics give the stands in process of conversion in the State forests as 290,227 hectares 

 (717,170 acres), the Handbook of 1900 as 124,374 hectares (307,340 acres). For the 

 communal forests this change can proceed only very gradually because of the financial 

 sacrifice involved. 



