OEGiLN'ISATION OF SELECTIOX-WOBOID FOEESTS. 1S$ 



scribe the age or ike diameter which the trees ought to attain before 

 being felled." The foregoing rule is an excellent one. It pre- 

 ecribes, in a word, that the exploitations shall remove only those 

 trees which are capable of satisfying in the happiest manner ix>»- 

 sible the interests of the owner. In forests under the control of 

 the State Department, it enforces the adoption of Qualitative 

 Esploitability based on the diameter which the trees ought to' attain 

 in order to furnish the most useful produce, they can. As regards 

 the reference made to the age of these trees, the word " age " 

 could only have been used in the sense of the stage of growth 

 attained, since in a forest worked by Selection it is impossible 

 to tell the age of any tree, untU it has been felled. The Am^na- 

 giste must therefore ascertain what diameter would enable the 

 trees to serve the most important purposes or to furnish the best 

 possible descriptions of produce. The result of this inquiry, the 

 corner stone itself of the whole Organisation Project, may be diEFer- 

 ent for different parts of the country. In the silver fir forests of the 

 YosgeSj where the great majority of the trees are destined to be 

 worked up with the saw, it has been remarked that the maximum 

 of utility for unity of volume is attained with a diameter of very 

 nearly 2 feet at 4 J feet from the ground : trees of less diameter 

 do not work up into planks so well, while the timber merchant 

 does not care to pay a higher rate for trees of larger diameter. As 

 a rule then, the silver fir in a Selection-worked forest of the Vos- 

 ges becomes exploitable as soon as it has attained a diameter of 

 2 feet measured at 4| feet from the ground. It is nnnecessarv to 

 observe that it is not every forest, especially if it is situated at a 

 high altitude, that can produce trees of that size ; but, at the worsts 

 we can always endeavour to keep as near it as the special capabi- 

 lities of the given forest allow. In the Jura, a portion of the sil- 

 ver and spruce firs produced is cut up into planks for the cabinet- 

 maker ; but the finest and thickest and longest logs are exported • 

 to considerable distances after being simply rough-squared, and are 

 used as beams by the builder. These entire logs are in great de- 

 mand and fetch higher prices than the same wood worked up into 

 planks ; but they must measure from 28 to 30 inches in diameter 

 at the base. In those forests, therefore, the soil and climate of 

 which allow the trees to attain that size, the diameter of the ex- 

 ploitable silver fir sbould be fixed accordingly. 



