182 OMAMISATION Of SKLKCTION-WoRKeD FORESTS. 



the figure of quality of the yield can possess only a secondary and 

 often Insignificant interest in the case under consideration. Thus 

 the Organisation Project must make no attempt at laying down 

 any prescriptions with regard to the exploitations ; these should 

 be left entirely to the discretion of the Executive Forest Officer, 

 who would from time to time submit specific proposals connected 

 therewith as the occasion required. 



The organisation of such forests is, therefore, limited simply to 

 their complete closing against grazing after being clearly demar- 

 ■oated. To this end, it may be necessary to prescribe the execu- 

 tion of certain protestive works, such as ditches, walls, and fences ; 

 and also certain works of conservation and improvement, such as 

 the partial sowing up of blanks, and the weeding out of bushy 

 regetation to clear the ground for the natural sowing of forest 

 epecies. In the majority of cases. It is in the closing of the forest 

 aigainst grazing that the real means of safety lies. 



SECTION li. 



^OBEStS SITUATED AT HiGfi ELEVATIONS. 



tJiider the above heading we include all those forests in which 

 teproduction is too uncertain ot loo slow to be obtained within a 

 given time, as well as those which are exposed in a special 

 iSiataner to injury from high winds. The majority of such forests 

 are actually situated at high elevations, where agriculture, proper- 

 ly so called, is impracticable, and which in France, as a rule, begin 

 at iabout 3,300 feet above the sea. And indeed, speaking generally, 

 wherever similar rigours of climate prevail as at those elevations, 

 it is the Selection Method that is the treatment most generally 

 applicable^ 



The first poiht to determine in organising such forests relates 

 to the exploitability of the trees, which, as a rule, ought never to 

 be felled except singly, so as to avoid producing gaps through 

 which the wind could enter. On this subject Section 72 of the 

 Royal Edict putting into force the Forest Code lays down that 

 ^' in forest* worked by SeJecHon the Organisation Project thall pre- 



