*SARTAGE” IN FRANCE. 98 
the rouvre, of all forest trees sustains best the treatment 
of Sartage. In the Ardennes, the coppice woods, which 
are so treated, which are situated generally on aslope, and 
growing on a soil composed largely of slate schist, are 
composed almost exclusively of the rouvre oak, which, in 
these circumstances, yields excellent firewood and char- 
coal, yields very good workable wood in such trees as are 
reserved for mature growth, and, above all, produces bark 
of the first quality. . 
In connection with this last-mentioned circumstance, it 
may be stated that the quality of bark is in general good 
in proportion as the thickness of the liber or inner bark is 
more considerable compared to the cortical layers and the 
epiderm, in botanical phrase, in proportion as the endo- 
phleum is thick in proportion to the mesophleum and the 
eptphleum, for the tannin is deposited chiefly in the endo- 
phleum, inner bark, or liber. Now this portion of the bark 
is developed more largely in proportion as the process of 
vegetation is rapid, and as the wood is young. These two 
circumstances being combined in the coppice wood sub- 
jected to Sartage, it is reasonable to conclude that the bark 
obtained from such woods will be of superior quality; and 
thus can we account for the fact observed. 
To such an extent is this fact the case that the bark 
and the cereals constitute the products which are con- 
sidered the most important of those of the coppice woods 
thus treated. And it is the interest of the proprietor to 
have those woods cut down constantly after from 15 to 25 
years’ growth. . 
To prepare for the Sartage, the soil is stript bare— 
stript to the surface of herbage and turf; the wood having 
been barked while the spring sap was weak, and the wood 
having been carried off in the usual way, all chips, twigs, 
refuse, and débris are spread over the ground. The quantity 
thus spread is considerable, as in woods subjected to Sartage 
they do not make faggots, but cord only the wood exceed-' 
ing somewhere about twenty-five millimetres, or one inch 
in diameter, and that whether it be designed for use as fire- 
