90 



from the side is very beneficial for the seed beds as well as for the nursery. Plants for 

 the nursery are preferable to those out of the forest j and the latter, when used, are as a 

 rule removed with some of the soil adhering to the roots. Planting is better done in 

 spring than in autumn, and in the usual way, the roots of the young plantg being cut as 

 may be necessary. They have to be sheltered as far as possible against sun, dryness, or 

 spring frosts, and the plants as a rule thrive better on the cool northerly and easterly 

 slopes of the mountains than anywhere else, The silver fir grows very slowly at first, 

 and does not get much higher than six inches in the first four or five years. At the age 

 of twenty-five years it begins to grow very fast, and increases most between the ages of 

 eighty and a hundred and twenty years. It likes best a deep, cool, moist and loamy soil 

 with a covering of moss, and sends its roots deeper than the spruce, in consequence of 

 which it suffers less from wind and storm than the latter. There are many spruce inter- 

 ■ mixed, used when natural reproduction of the silver fir fails. Thinnings are necessary in 

 the thirtieth year, and have then to be repeated every tenth yeslr, till the gradual telling 

 of the largest trees commences. These fellings are regjilated by the needs of the young 

 seedlings, and are carried out only sufficiently to admit light to the young plants, leaving 

 as many of the old trees to stand as can be permitted. 



Moorpan. — In Hanover and elsewhere, where the Government are bringing up thou- 

 sands of acres of heath for the purpose of planting forests, great difficulty is found in 

 penetrating and converting into good soil a hard layer called "moorpan." This is broken 

 by plough and pickaxe, and Scotch firs planted, whose deep tap-root passes down into the 

 layer of better soil below. The Government pay about $11 an acre for the land. 



Feance. 



The administration of forests in France is entrusted to the Ministry of Finance, and 

 the head of the Department is the Director-General, assisted by two administrators, one 

 charged with the management of the forests and the sale of the products, the other with 

 the police of the forests and the forest laws. In the departments there are thirty-two 

 conservators, each in charge of one or more departments, according to the extent of 

 forests in each. The immediate supervision is entrusted to inspectors, who are assisted 

 by sub-inspectors and gardes-generaux, who live near, and personally superintend all ope- 

 rations and work of the forest guards. The brigadiers and forest guards live in houses 

 in the forest and serve as a police oyer a certain range. They are required to be present 

 at all operations, and to go round their ranges at least once a day to report any violations 

 of forest law that may take place. 



The saw-mills in the forests are usually owned by the Government and hired at a 

 certain rate to the wood merchants, who buy the cuttings. The timber is allowed to be 

 sawn up before it is inspected and marked by the forest guard under the superintendence 

 of an inspector. 



The forests under the management of the bureau are (State and Commune) about 

 7,500,000 acres. There were nearly a million more, which went with Alsace and Lor- 

 raine to Germany. Also, there are in France 15,000,000 acres of private forests. 



Of schools of forestry, the French have, at Nancy, one of the best in the world, 



