40 



FOREST REGIONS AND IMPORTANT SPECIES 



IMPORTANT FOREST SPECIES 



Acreage and Distribution. — The figures that follow show the propor- 

 tionate area stocked with each of the principal species in France in the 

 forests under State supervision. These statistics are based on Huffel's 

 figures of 1904, corrected proportionately to conform to the official statis- 

 tics on total forest area pubhshed in 1912 by the Service des Eaux et 

 Forets. 



According to these figures, broadleaf trees occupy 77 per cent of the 

 area as against 23 per cent for the conifers. There are no accurate figures 

 for private forests, nor for communal and institutional forests not under 

 State supervision, but Huffel estimates that for all of France the timber 

 oaks occupy 35 per cent of the ground, the holm oak 4 per cent, misceha- 

 neous broadleaf trees 41 per cent, and the conifers about 20 per cent. 

 Table 2 follows: 



TABLE 2. — AREA OCCUPIED BY BROADLEAVES AND CONIFERS 



As the foregoing table indicates, the occurrence of the various species 

 depends chiefly on climatic conditions and the oak is unquestionably by 

 far the most important and typical timber species. The timber oaks not 

 only occupy 27.5 per cent of the total productive forest area under work- 

 ing plans but are also encouraged in regeneration in their fight against 

 other species, and in many State forests the oak is grown to unprofital^ly 

 long rotations in order to supply industry with the class of wood which it 

 requires. Two important species are the sessile and pedunculate oak; 

 they occur in mixture and separately. Oak is found all over France ex- 



