Canadian Forestry Journai, Xorembcr, 1918 



1919 



The Forest Policy of France 



We have now ])een viriualh nine 

 months in the advance section," 

 writes First Lieutenant Lawrence R. 

 McCoy of the 20th Engineers (Forest) 

 "'and on account of the variety of 

 landscape, we find all species of lim- 

 ber and many odd operating con- 

 ditions. Some of our operations are 

 in a mountainous country in excellent 

 fir and spruce forests that have been 

 carefully guarded and are forested by 

 selective cutting, and if necessary by 

 seeding, these war limes and il is 

 very surprising to us to find that this 

 conservative French forestry policy 

 is virtually unchanged in national 

 and communal forests up to within 

 five miles of the front line trenches. 

 As a result of this far-sighted policy 

 we have been able to cut as high as 

 55,000 feet of fir and spruce timber 

 per acre on some small tracts of 40 to 

 50 acres in extent although of course 

 the general average throughout our 

 operations will not run as high as this. 

 In the flat country we are operating 

 in several excellent hardwood forests, 

 some of the old oak timber running 

 50 inches on the butt. One can 

 imagine the difficulties in attempting 

 to saw such large timber into 



heavy 32-foot construction timbers 

 on a sawmill carriage built to open 

 only 30 inches. A large percentage 

 of the timber, however, runs only 18 

 to 20 inches, which easily works up 

 ihto railroad ties and light structural 

 lumber. These hardwood forests are 

 generally divided up into several 

 small coupes of from 12 to 25 acres 

 each, having an annual rotation of 

 from 25 to 30 years. About one- 

 third of the reserve of large trees will 

 be cut on a coupe and all of the 

 coppice, or brush, cut out for fuel- 

 wood, leaving possibly 75 baliveaux 

 or small trees out of the coppice 

 per acre. The roots, when properly 

 cut level with the ground, send up 

 strong sprouts which in 20 to 25 

 years develop into a very heavy mass 

 of underbrush which produces good 

 fuelwood, and the baliveaux event- 

 ually mature into good saw timber. 

 On account of this selective cutting, 

 we find very few defects in either soft 

 or hardwood timber and the timber is 

 bought on a solid cubic meter volume 

 basis. Of course there are many 

 exceptions to the above, and in some 

 pine forests in particular, that are 

 hand i)lanted, the cutting is com- 

 plete and not on a selective basis. 



A Scheme to Afforest the Prairies 



By Thomas Tod, Russell, Manitoba 



The suggestion I have to nuike is, 

 that in sparsely wooded and unwood- 

 ed districts, the recpiirements to 

 obtain the patent for a homestead 

 l)e changed from the 15 acres cultiva- 

 tion or other present improvements 

 required, to the thorough cultivation 

 and SOWING WITH TREE SEEDS, 

 a strip 100 feel wide on two sides of 

 the settler's holding. The amount of 

 land this strip would take up would 

 l)e a fraction over 12 acres on 2 sides 

 of a section. Any quick growing 

 variety of the seed would do, Pop- 

 lars, Maples, Willows, some of the 



conifers and hardwoods might be 

 cried, according to locality. That 

 such a scheme is practicable I have 

 ample proof, both in the case of land 

 treated as proposed, cultivated and 

 sown wi th tree seeds, of which I know 

 several most successful cases, and 

 also in the case of self sown poplar 

 bluffs afler fires. There are many 

 localities in this district that have 

 been entirely denuded of wood by 

 fires that are now covered with self 

 sown timber of from 6 to 8 inches in 

 diameter, grown within the last 15 

 or 20 vcars. These facts which can 



