CHAPTER IV. 



IRREGULAR HIGH FORESTS OF THE BROAD-LEAVED 



SPECIES. 



SECTION L 



Cultural Requirements, 



The method of treatment known as that a tire et aire consisted 

 in the clean-felling of equal areas in unbroken consecutive order. 

 The Royal Edict of 1669 made its observance compulsory in high 

 forests as well as in copses. That Edict prescribed the reservatioQ 

 of ten trees per French acre ( 1.275 English acres ). 



Moreover, when once a clean-felling had been made in any- 

 place, the method in question admitted no further cuttings of any kind 

 until the next clean-felling took place on the expiration of a whole 

 Rotation, the only exception to the rule being the Extraordinary 

 Fellings executed under the special orders of the King's Council. 

 Thus from one end of the Rotation to the other, the growth of th& 

 new crop was left to chance and Improvement Cuttings were not 

 even so much as thought of. 



This method of treatment was especially employed in the plains- 

 forests, which were stocked with broad-leaved species, and the pro- 

 duce of which could be exported for general consumption. Its 

 essential object was the production of the large timber required by 

 the country at large and the Royal Navy. The rigid consecutive 

 order which the Edict prescribed for the fellings was intended 

 before everything else to assure the complete and unqualified pre- 

 servation of every crop during an entire Rotation of from 160 

 to 200 years, that is to say, until it had attained complete maturity. 



