GERMAN COMMENT ON FRENCH FORESTRY 487 



stands. Private owners are finding themselves forced to lengthen the rotation periods 

 in the same. ... At the same time the declining rate of interest and the increase 

 in the price of wood are leading forest owners, to a greater and greater extent, to increase 

 the amount of capital invested in forests and to defer the utilization of the stands until a 

 more advanced age." 



As in France, so in many German forest regions, we find factors which determine the 

 sort of management which shall be practiced by the Government and by others. Even 

 here many private owners may, in view of the present conditions and future possibilities, 

 well increase the length of their rotations. Even for private management the rule holds 

 good that those products must be grown which best meet the requirements of economic 

 conditions. That this demand frequently is not met, that many private forests are left 

 unutilized and reverted to waste lands — evident from the poor, careless management 

 and unsuitable working units ("dwarf management" {Zwergbetriebe)) — is the cause of 

 the financial position of many forest estates. Very often private owners are not in a 

 position to maintain their resources in the unavailable form of standing forest capital, 

 because they need them for very definite purposes; they have to have it in a more 

 readily available form and for that reason often clean-cut the stands even when the 

 increment in volume and value would be greater than the interest on the readily avail- 

 able capital. For leading the way toward better conditions in this regard it is desirable 

 that renting of forests be facilitated in a manner similar to the measures of the German 

 Forestry Association {Deutscher Forstverein) . 



From what has been said it can be seen that it is desirable at present in France, and 

 in other countries as well, that the systems of management in private and in State forests 

 be brought into closer accord. The economic laws and principles upon which manage- 

 ment depends are restricted neither to State nor to private forests, but are of universal 

 application. For this reason, also, the claim that there are opposed principles of manage- 

 ment — a private and a social — is not to be accepted absolutely, in spite of the great 

 influence upon management of consideration for the community and for the future. As 

 a matter of fact they are not sustained under the economic conditions which, hypothetic- 

 ally, they favor. 



COPPICE WITH STANDARDS, AND SIMPLE COPPICE is 



Coppice with Standards. — Coppice with standards is a system of management 

 found in almost every part of France. It is most strongly advocated for the communal 

 forests. According to the statistics cited ^^ the State forests comprise 269,707 hectares 

 (666,465 acres) of coppice with standards which equals 26 per cent of the entire forest 

 area; the communal forests 936,305 hectares (2,313,694 acres), 49 per cent. Since the 

 French forests of coppice with standards comprise only a little overwood, and the sprout 

 lands are stocked mainly with reserved standards, it is not always possible to draw a 

 sharp distinction between the two. Both systems belong to the regime du taillis which 

 is characterized by sprout reproduction as distinct from the regime de la futaie where 

 reproduction is secured from seeds. Within the same regime further distinctions are 

 made according to the method of handling {mode de trailment). In the case of coppice 

 with standards the group system {mode de eclaircies) is looked upon as different from 

 the selection system (mode de jardinage). Similar distinctions are made within the 

 regime du taillis: 



Le taillis simple, "exploite entierement a blanc etoc ou sans autres reserves que des baliv- 



16 "Forstwissenschaftliches Centralblatt," 1908, pp. 655-65. 



1^ In the Handbook of the Exposition of 1900. The figures in the statistique forestiere 

 of 1870 differ considerably because in the interval extensive changes have occurred. 



