A SCSTAINED YIELD. 3 



portion of our supply of timber suited for the eabiuet-maker 

 and the cooper. The wants of the former are supplied from the 

 countries round the Baltic, those of the latter from the countries 

 on the Adriatic. Now we know on unimpeachable authority that 

 the forests in the neighbourhood of those two seas are becoming 

 impoverished and exhausted, and at no distant date, perhaps in 

 less than a half a century, this source of supply will completely 

 cease to exist It is necessary, therefore, now more than ever, 

 to apply ourselves with all the means at our disposal to the 

 production of large timber, even if to attain that result we had for 

 the present to forego a portion of our forest revenue and to neglect 

 for a time, comparatively short after all, the condition of a sustained 

 yield in our high forests.^ 



f 1.) The forest of Footainebleau offers to the observer at the very gates of 

 Paris a sight full of instruction. Out. of a total area of 42,500 acres about 2,500 

 acres are under full-grown high forest, 5,000 acres under pole crops from 50 to 90 

 years old, and 32,500 acres under copse and young pine plantatious, while more 

 than 2,000 acres consist of the bare rock. Thus out of a total productive area 

 of 40,000 acres, only 2,500 acres contain old timber. These chi'-fly cover the 

 fine cantons that are reserved in the interests of the artist. But had there 

 been no special reason for couserviug these high forest crops, it would have been 

 not less expedient, in the interests of the forester, not to touch them except 

 with the most sparing hand. It would be advisable to spread their exploitation 

 over as long a period as wouM suffice to allow the next lower age-class over 

 some considerable area to reach a Lirge size. For what would happen if, to secure 

 a sustained yield, a quantity equil to the ineau annual production of the forest 

 were taken out every year ? In less than 10 years every vestige of the full- 

 grown high forest would have disappeared. In another ten years the pole crops 

 would have suffered the same fate, and by the end of the present century the 

 memory itself of the large timber no-» sraiidiug would have passed away with 

 the generation that had seen it all felled. In those days perhaps people would 

 refuse to believe that the sandy soil there couM produce tall high forest, and 

 for time without end this forest would be devoted to utter ruin. 'J'he most rigid 

 economy is now the one indispensible guarantee fur the future proRperity of 

 this fine forest, and the question of a sustained yield must be subordinated to 

 that of the proper eiploitability and the requisite rest. 



But it mast not be thence inferred that there are cases, in which the 

 condition of a sustained y'eld may be entirely disregarded, and to such extent 

 as to suspend the exploitations for a time, or even only to reduce them to the 

 lowest figure possible. To uudei-stand this, a moment's reflection is enough. 

 Suppose, for example, that at Foutainebleau the income, reduced to £4,000, is 

 barely sufficient to cover cost of supervision and maintenance, and yields no 

 immediate profit to the State Treasury, or that the produce extracted is too 

 inconsiderable to sunply the town inside the forest with wood for the most 

 ordinary purposes, such as cookiiic, &c Such a state of things could not 

 continue for any length of time. Very soon thiT'^ would be a reaction, and a too 

 parsimonious organisation would be partially or wholly set aside. Besides this 

 such excessive rigour is qnite useless. There is no forest, however poor it may 

 be, but contains sfme crops that hold out little promise, and which can 

 be cut, without detiim?nt to the forest, .so as to yield a sufficient supply of 

 secondary produce. Thus the condition of a sustained yield is always to a 

 certain extent imposed on the Ameaagiste, and some means always offer 

 themselves by which it mav be satisfied. Only to judge the right extent and to 

 recognise the true means require on the part of the Am^nagiste au unfailing 

 £iower of apprecialiin and a thorough knowledge of facts. 



