70 NATURAL REGENERATION 



FRENCH SILVICULTURAL METHODS 



Systems of Cutting. — French silviculture is especially simple. Where 

 the German silviculturist may describe twenty or thirty different methods 

 of cutting, French authors generally confine themselves to a comparatively 

 few. Special methods of cutting, or variations from regulated systems, 

 they leave to the individual silviculturist who uses his judgment in vary- 

 ing standard methods so as to meet local conditions. These variations, 

 as well as special emphasis on the object of cutting and method of attain- 

 ing the end, are usually cited in the local working plan. The systems 

 used in France are: (1) Clear cutting, (2) shelterwood (progressive cut- 

 ting), (3) selection felhngs, (4) group fellings, (5) coppice, (6) coppice- 

 under-standards, (7) conversions. A routine description of these stand- 

 ard methods does not seem necessary, but instead the French method of 

 application of silviculture to the more important species has been studied 

 and cited. The illustrations are from original French working plans. 



The Market. — According to Huffel, forests have always played an 

 important role in the national hfe. First, for hunting and food; then, 

 until the Nineteenth Century, the forest furnished fuel, timber for houses 

 and ships, tools and utensils, honey and wax, dead leaves for manure, 

 nuts, various fruits, and resin. Grazing was important, and as late as 

 1560 the forest of Haguenau in Alsace was described by the number of 

 hogs it would support. Additional products were strawberries, rasp- 

 berries, mushrooms, moss, plants, twigs, cones, heather, and ferns, much 

 of which were collected by the poor, since the French have always con- 

 sidered that "the forest is the cloak of the poor." In the present century, 

 although the tendency is decidedly toward the production of saw timber, 

 three-fourths of the output is still firewood. In 1815 Paris consumed 

 0.50 cords per inhabitant; in 1865, 0.13, and in 1900, but 0.05 cords per 

 inhabitant. Not only has the use of charcoal for cooking fallen off, but 

 factories use coal to the almost total exclusion of wood or charcoal. The 

 early writers, prior to the discovery of coal, often predicted a wood 

 famine, and had not coal been discovered their predictions would have 

 come true, because to supply the equivalent of the present coal consump- 

 tion of France more than ten times the total forest area would be necessary. 

 Fortunately for the timber resources the use of wood is becoming less and 

 less. Iron was first used for shipbuilding in 1843; iron and cement have 

 largely replaced wood for houses. The great demand to-day is for a good 

 quality of boards, mine props, ties, paving blocks, wood pulp, tan bark, and 

 cork, as well as for such products as turpentine, rosin, alcohol, etc. This 

 rough summary of the decreasing use of wood products and the change in 

 kind of material required is merely given as an illustration to show how 

 necessary it is for the forester to study the future needs of the country. 



