476 APPENDIX 



be taken not to break the leaf canopy.") The oaks in the understoiy should, for the 

 most part, be widely spaced; there is no particular need of keeping them in the stand 

 either for their sale value or for the benefit of the soil. " The oak cannot be expected to 

 constitute both upper and lower stories at the same time." Just that much more pains 

 is taken to preserve that part of the understory which is suitable for soil protection. 

 The retaining of such species will, of course, be considered all the more necessary the 

 milder the cUmate and the better the soil. For this reason it has been emphatically 

 directed "to take particular pains to leave all woody undergrowth (suppressed trees, 

 shrubs, etc.) which is capable of persisting in place of a lower story. This lower story- 

 must never be touched in making cuttings." Only when preparing for reproduction is 

 the understory to be removed. 



In stands where beech occurs in the mixture the thinnings retain the character of 

 cleanings from the sapling age well up into the higher pole-wood and standard classes. 

 ("During this long period the thinnings must always take the form of hberation cuttings 

 if the successive crowding out of all the oaks is to be avoided.") In general, however, 

 the raising of mixed stands of beech and oak of approximately the same age presents no 

 difficulty if at the time of the regeneration the faster growth of the oak is encouraged. 

 Owing to the climatic conditions this proposition is entirely feasible. In the northern 

 part of the country the conditions are different. It has been established that here the 

 beech is a faster grower than the oak at all ages. For such stands, therefore, the mixing 

 of the two species by distinct groups, is directed. ("These difficulties are overcome by 

 practicing regeneration in compartments in which each species, maintained in a pure 

 stand . . . receives proper care throughout its entire life.") In France an inten- 

 tional underwood, through which the needs and requirements of both species can best 

 be met, is seldom formed. The special cases mentioned of the underplanting of open 

 spaces in the stand are not, in oiu' estimation, to be looked upon as examples of forming 

 an underwood. This also is denounced in the literature. At least Boppe refers to the 

 Bavarian (Spessart and the Palatinate) system of forming an imderwood as a local 

 pecvdiarity. 



The earher operations of thinnings can best be understood from the present condition 

 of neighboring older stands. An examination of these leaves no room for doubt that in 

 France as in most German States thinnings have not been conducted in strict accordance 

 with the needs of the management. The formation of stands as described above — 

 with a volume of 11,430 to 14,290 cubic feet per acre, a clear length of 65 feet and a 

 diameter of 20 inches — was effected by moderate thinnings. 



HIGH FOREST REGULATION' 



As admirably as the management of the French State and administered forests is ex- 

 hibited in everything which relates to the technical side of the subject (estabUshment and 

 care of stands, thinnings, feUing operations, etc.) the conditions of the forest organiza- 

 tion and the regulation of revenue will meet with but httle favor in the eyes of the Ger- 

 man visitor. We did not, on the present trip, see any operations from which the methods 

 of regulating income and the form it should take could be judged. But the principles 

 of the forest regulation were so evident in the condition of the stands and from the 

 economic maps that we could get an idea of them even without the working plans of the 

 general form of those which may be seen for the State forests. The most important 

 consideration characteristic of the French forest regulation has to do with the local estab- 

 lishment of the working groups and the choosing of the places where cuttings are to be 

 made, with which there must at the same time be combined an establishment of the 

 rotation period. 



' Forstwissenschaftliches Centralblatt, 1908, pp. 530-47. 



