POBEST EXPLOITATION. 161 



skojald be. .)?nown, As a precantion against my giviag a 

 misrepreseBtation of it I shall cite an account of it given 

 in the Gomptes Eendw de la Societe d' Agriculture de France, in 

 a valuable paper On the disappearance of the oak in the 

 forests of the north and north-east of France, read before 

 the Society at a meeting held on the I7th April 1878, by 

 M. B. de la Grye, a Member of the Society. 



The gradual, but steadily advancing disappearance of 

 the oak in the forests in that region of France, has been 

 observed and proved, and has been considered a serious 

 matter, M. de la Grye shows that it cannot be attribu- 

 table to any climatic change. He adverts then to the 

 different treatment given to coppice woods and to timber 

 forests ; and he goes on to say : — ' It is, moreover, not in 

 the timber forests but in the copse woods that the dis 

 appearance of the oak has made itself conspicuous ; and 

 it is principally in forests subjected to this mode of 

 treatment that it has manifested itself most distinctly. 



' There it is not difficult to perceive that the mode of 

 exploitation is sufficient to account for the progressive 

 disappearance of this tree. 



' The exploitation of coppice woods consists, as is known, 

 in cutting down every ten years, fifteen years, twenty 

 years or more, the whole crop, saving some selected trees 

 destined to form a reserve. The reproduction is effected 

 by shoots from the stumps, and to some small extent also 

 by seeds produced by the reserves. The shoots proceeding 

 from buds are nourished exclusively from material stored 

 up in the stumps, and especially in the living portions of 

 these stumps ; and the shoots or suckers will be more 

 vigorous in proportion as the stumps are stronger, and as 

 their ligneous layers still alive are thicker. 



'Experience shows indeed that young stumps alone 

 produce vigorous and plentiful shoots; when the stumps 

 are old, and especially when they have become disordered 

 in their central parts — (a. thing which cannot fail to 

 happen) — there is, indeed, a production of suckers^ but 

 these quickly become pale, and they are not slow to dis- 



M 



