78 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



MARITIME PINE GROWN ON THE SHIFTING SAND DUNES IN 

 THE GIRONDE, FRANCE. 



recognizes that success cannot always be obtained under 

 these difficult conditions without assisting nature. Con- 

 sequently he is ready to wound ground covered with 

 grass, so that the seed can germi- 

 nate in the mineral soil, or he 

 may have to cut back briars, or 

 heather, which is crowding out 

 the commercial stand. 



In the latter part of the eigh- 

 teenth century the Landes and 

 Gironde was fast becoming 

 waste land. The sand had been 

 blown over forests and fields so 

 that even villages had to be 

 abandoned. Today this area is 

 in productive maritime pine for- 

 ests, producing lumber, mine 

 props, ties and turpentine. These 

 forests ripen in seventy to eighty 

 years and upon maturity are 

 clear cut. After lumbering, the 

 branches and unmerchantable 

 tops are left on the ground ; the 

 sun opens the cones and the sand 

 is quickly covered with a stand 

 so dense that it must be thinned 



to reduce the competition for light. Then as the seed- 

 lings grow into saplings, the excess trees are tapped to 

 death to produce resin and mine props and to favor 

 the development of the crowns of the final stand. Mari- 

 time pine must have large, well developed crowns to 

 produce resin, the major crop. Fires must be kept 

 out and there are protection belts along the ocean to 

 prevent the drifting of sand. 



The sessile oak in the rich valley of the Adour, where 

 there is an annual acorn crop, can be clear cut and re- 

 produced with the same ease but in the sessile and pedun- 

 culate oak stands (often mixed with beech in Central 

 France) the regeneration must be by progressive cuttings. 

 With oak the technical objective is to produce large tim- 

 ber requiring 180 to 240 years to fully mature. Oak is 

 an intolerant species so seedlings must have light for 

 their development, while the beech, on the other hand, 

 requires for a time a protective cover of older trees, 

 against frost and sunlight. If the mother stand were clear 

 cut, the ground would run to weeds and the oak and 

 beech would be only partially successful, because good 

 seed years are six to eight years apart. Under these 

 conditions there are three successive fellings. The seed 

 felling aims at starting the seedlings, the development of 

 the crowns of the seed trees and the partial removal of 

 the merchantable crop. 



According to the teaching of Boppe, a great French 

 silviculturist, all trees, other than seed trees, whose 

 foliage extends to the ground and is, therefore, sup- 

 pressing seedlings, are removed; beech, or hornbeam, 

 which often forms a valuable understory, in order to 

 preserve soil conditions up to the time of the seed fell- 

 ing, is cut. If the soil is covered with weeds, they are 

 cut level with the ground as are also oak advance growth 

 which would not do for future regeneration. The soil 

 after a seed felling must be cleared of all low growth. 





A SEED FELLING IN THE STATE FOREST OF HEZ FROIDMONT, FRANCE. 





