32 FORESTRY IN EASTERN RUSSIA. 



age of twenty- four or thirty years (i.e., if the rotation is 

 of twenty-four or thirty years) the clumps are composed 

 of shoots of three different ages/ It is a method of 

 exploitation applied chiefly to beech coppice wood. 



The beech is a tree which is not well adapted for 

 exploitation as coppice, but it can be exploited thus 

 advantageously. There are in France about 100,000 

 acres of beech coppice, belonging for the most part to 

 private proprietors. These are situated chiefly in that 

 part of France formerly known as Morvan, on the Swiss 

 side of the Jura, and at the foot to the Pyrenees; and 

 there they are frequently subjected to this mode of 

 exploitation. 



An exhaustive article on the Furetage of the beech in 

 the Pyrenees, by M. E. Guinier, may be found in the 

 Revue des Eaux et Forets for 1883 (pp. 469-477, 527-541). 

 His object is to show how an improved modification of 

 this method of exploitation may remedy several evils, and 

 secure several advantages, in coppice woods, which are 

 thus treated ; and in pursuit of this object he addresses 

 himself chiefly to the objections of those who are so satis- 

 fied with it that they are unwilling to make any change. 

 After discussing at considerable length much which is 

 involved in the failures which have followed this method 

 of exploitation, M. Guinier passes under review objections 

 which have been taken to any attempt to improve it, and 

 answers these seriatim. The objections thus treated are 

 the following : 



It is said (1) Furetage is excellent inasmuch as it ensures 

 the conservation of coppice woods ; this has been estab- 

 lished by experience : why seek for anything other than 

 it is? 



2. What is defective in Furetage lies not in the method, 

 but in the practice and application made of this ; and 

 we ought not to hold the method responsible for abuses 

 which have crept into it in practice. 



3. Furetage comprises a collection of harmonious rules 



