8 A SUSTAINED YIELD. 



offcea find aa equilibrium established on the whole by compensations 

 between restricted cuttings on the one side and abnormally large 

 cuttings on the other. Often also, in organising any given forest, 

 it is possible to combine the exploitations in its various component 

 Working Circles in such a manner, as to have the general yield of 

 the whole forest appreciably the same from period to period. Let 

 us in the last place add that the continuous improvement of our 

 export lines and roads allows of a more equal distribution of forest 

 produce throughout the country, and of its easy export from one 

 district to another, so that the supply at once responds to the 

 demand. 



To summarise what precedes, we see that it is necessary, in 

 organising high forests, to endeavour to combine the exploitations in 

 such a manner, as to obtain sufficiently equal quantities of produce 

 in equal periods of the rotation. Nevertheless, if in any given forest 

 there is no exploitable timber at all to be found, it is certainly better 

 to wait till the older portions of the standing stock are completely 

 mature, than to fell them when they are, as it were, on the eve of 

 acquiring all their finest qualities. If, on the contrary, old timber 

 is abundant, while the age-class next below it is insufficiently re- 

 presented, it is expedient to distribute the exploitation of this old 

 material, already exploitable thouojh it be, over the first two 

 periods of the rotation, in order to reserve for the next generation 

 the supply of large timber which it will require, and to allow the 

 younger crops sufficient time to reach maturity. 



The reason is obvious, for the production of large timber is 

 the chief razsow rf'e'^re of state forests, since all other descriptions 

 of ligneous produce can be obtained from communal and private 

 woodlands as well. The main duty of the Forest Department 

 is thus to economize as much as possible what timber is still left 

 in the state forests, and to be careful not to abandon to the axe 

 vigorous well-formed and flourishing trees before they have 

 attained exploitable dimensions. This recommendation of ours 

 refers chiefly to our two principal species, the oak and the silver 

 fir, which in our climate yield timber of a quality far above the 

 average. Our state forests, such as they have come down to us, 

 can furnish only a small proportion of the large timber required by 

 the country, and we are reduced to go the foreigner for a considerable 



