GERMAN COMMENT ON FRENCH FORESTRY 491 



vigorous sprouts, demands an extensive management for the overwood, and hence it 

 is thus that it is managed in the French State and communal forests. 



The predominating species in the French coppice with standards stands is the oak. 

 It, alone, is recorded in the statistics. In Blois it occupied 95 per cent of the forest 

 area. The oak, under the favorable conditions of site in central France, is characterized 

 by good sprouting capacity and abundant seed production. The renovation of over- 

 wood and underwood is effected, therefore, chiefly by natural regeneration and sprout- 

 ing in a very satisfactory manner. In most instances, artificial regeneration is to be 

 considered when large oaks, of which there are only a few per hectare, are rooted out. 

 The rooting out of trees of a specified size is required of the buyer. When such root- 

 ing out has taken place the buyer is required to plant such places with oak or deposit 

 the amount required for this planting. The places on which the wood has been worked 

 must also be planted up by the buyer. He, moreover, is required to prune the reserved 

 trees and this must be done to a height of 20 feet from the ground. These regulations 

 are not mere matters of pen and ink; they are skilfully, carefully, and thoroughly carried 

 out so that the visitor to the cutting areas receives the most favorable impression of the 

 system. The impression one receives of the care of the underwood is not so favorable. 

 Thinnings are not made in the underwood in the Blois forest — and the conditions at 

 Blois are not exceptional — although, with the long rotation period,[they would be just 

 as much in order as in the coppice stands for which their importance is demonstrated by 

 the numerous tree sections at the Paris Exposition. The maintenance, also, of volun- 

 tary seedlings and the preparation of the poles of the overwood for isolation indicate 

 timely apphcation of cleanings and thinnings in the underwood. The form of the 

 purchase, however, makes for difficulties in this respect. The buyer, who has to get 

 out the timber itseK, has no interest in the small wood resulting from thinnings. 



(6) ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF COPPICE WITH STANDARDS 



Of most importance for the future of coppice with standards in France is not a well- 

 developed technique, but its relations to economic conditions. The question as to 

 whether coppice with standards, which comprises some 3,000,000 hectares (7,413,270 

 acres) in France, yields profits commensurate with the best utihzation of the land is 

 of great influence upon its future management and the methods of regulation. The 

 answer is dependent, on the one hand, upon the volume and value of the material 

 which it furnishes, and on the other, upon the cost and working methods which are 

 existent or which would have to be introduced in order to produce this volume and value. 



The production of volume in the French coppice with standards stands can be very 

 well indicated. On the basis of economic results a much more trustworthy judgment 

 can be found for it than is possible in the case of the high forest. Utilization in the 

 coppice with standards stands has long been much more uniform. In the forest at 

 Blois which we visited the income corresponding to the increment amounts annually 

 to large cuts on the 5.74 hectare (15-acre) cutting areas: In the year 1891, 548; 1892, 

 554; 1893-1894, 931; 1895, 540; 1896, 547; 1897, 501 ; 1898, 517; 1899, 547 m.^. Accord- 

 ing to this, the average volume of the annual cut on the 5.74 hectare (15-acre) amounts 

 to 91 m.3 per hectare (1,300 cubic feet per acre). This is equivalent to a yearly utiliza- 

 tion of 3.6 m.3 (127 cubic feet) for a 25-year rotation. In the adjacent high forest, 

 occupying a smiliar site, the annual yield amounts to 3.3 m.' (117 cubic feet). The 

 volume actually used in the two systems, therefore, differs but slightly; but the coppice 

 with standards system is in the lead. If the conditions throughout the country are 

 compared this difference is seen to be even more favorable to the system of coppice with 

 standards. According to the statistics of the department of soils and commerce (Acker- 

 und Handelsministerium) there were used per hectare of forest area in the year 1876: 



