APPLICATION OF SIMPLE COPPICE. 125 



acre per annum. It appears to us that something 

 better could be done, especially for the Pyrenean 

 oak. 



In Sologne, and in the centre of France, the 

 rotation is usually longer, from twenty to twenty- 

 five years. The result is that besides good bark the 

 two principal oaks also furnish wood of some value, 

 and even poles that are used as small timber. When 

 the peduncled oak is pure, the soil is much exposed , 

 and coppice is kept up with comparative difficulty. 

 Here also it is desirable to associate it with the 

 hornbeam. 



" SAETAGE " OB SURFACE FIRING. In the Ardennes, 

 the simple coppices of the sessile and peduncled oaks 

 sometimes pure, sometimes associated, or growing 

 with beech, hornbeam and hazel, are subjected to a 

 peculiar process termed " Sartage "; that is to say, 

 after the exploitation, the small branches and other 

 refuse are burnt, and cereals are cultivated for one 

 year. Such coppices are generally worked on a 

 rotation of twenty- four years. The produce obtained 

 consists of the cereal crop, bark, pit-props, charcoal, 

 and fuel that is highly esteemed. All these various 

 products yield together an average net annual revenue 

 of about 9s. 7d. an acre. " Sartage " appears to have 

 originated in the want of means of communication 

 and in the poverty of the soil, which could not yield 

 a regular succession of agricultural crops. With the 

 present facilities for carriage, it has lost all its im- 

 portance, and its continuance is only a matter of 

 traditional custom doomed to die out in time and 

 with the progress of industrial development in the 



