FORESTRY IN FRANCE.

Otaki Mail, 15 June 1923, Page 4

FORESTRY IN FRANCE.

SERVICE METHODS. TIMBER SUPPLIES BRING INDUSTRIES. j Some very interesting details were I given to a "Chronicle" representative in regard to Forestry in France, by I Mr G. D. Hamilton, of Levin, who spent several years in the Forestry i Service during the war, this being an I essential activity in regard to the I maintenance of the armies in the field. | Mr Hamilton said he would endeavour to detail the general principles and methods adopted by the French Service in the practice* of Forestry. First, however, it must, he understood that, in France there was several distinct types of forest. In the northern portion of the country" we can take for example the State forest of Nieppe, lying between the towns ot Hazebrouck. Aire, and McrviUe. This is a mixed forest, or one in which is propagated heavy timber over brushwood. The forest is divided into three partitions called respectively the Bois D'Aval, the Bois Moyennes. and the Bois Thiennes. Each of these partitions is in turn, subdivided into 35 "coupes" or cuttings, and is cut each i year, the whole forest being cut over in 35 years. The original coupe is ! now back to iff. 35th year and ready I for the next cutting, and so the rotaj tion goes on. The trees cut, constitute ! only a small percentage of the millI able timber available, the balance being conserved in accordance with the forestry practice of the State Forest Service. The method of selection of timber to be felled is as follows:—A forestry officer marks the large timber with a blaze. At the same time the standards of the brushwood selected to be left standing for the next rotation of 35 years, are marked by a circle of red paint. The woodsmen then clear out all the brushwood, which is cut. up into pit-props and fuel, the smaller wood and branches being bundled into fag-| gots. In the cutting of the brush, the stump left, must not be jagged, but, left with a clean surface shaped like an inverted saucer, so that water will not lodge in same, and cause rot, as it is from these roots that regeneration comes. When this has been done, the milling timber marked is felled flush with the forest floor, and carted out to the road on wheels, no other method of removing logs from the forests being permitted by the French Forest Service. I

f ii will therefore be se,en, that after the years these forests" have been I worked, (here is a succession of standj ards in Hip forest after each cut, of i from 35 years up fo, probably, 200 , years of age, according fo the quality i of the timber. ] Tim selection of the Umber to bej > P, cut i< carried out by a Forestry officer. . I •: and it is in this selection tha.t the ?er-! ?j vices of an export are essentially neces-1 !sruy. "in toy previous letter. T mentioned that several Communes in J • France have their own forests. Per-| haps t had better Male that these forests aare more or less under the control of the French Forest Service, as those Communes rely entirely on 5 I service for their "Gardes Forestiers." I . who are lent by the State Service, and I Charges made to the Communes far | their services, f ran see no rea'son h why similar methods could not be g adopted hi New Zealand, thereby as- £ suring a definite forest policy through--8 out the publicly-owned forests. « "The principle's governing the seloc--6 Hon of trees would lake volumes to I describe in detail as it is on this that ■ the scientific hasis of Forestry com- ] mence'?. Rut F would say in passing, i I Chat some of the principal conditions J • which govern the selection of timber 1 I ait each cut are (in tins particular for-1 { est. of Nieppe) : I 8* I Their situation in the canopy of' 3 j Hie forest, or whether they are crowd--3 ing out more study and vigorously growing standards 'this being a hard- | J wood forest and most, species repreI j sented being more or less light deI j manding). | 12) The. preservation as far as pos--9 silile, of a proper representation of S age classes. I f 3) The maintenance of the rate of s growth. > I f'-'t'i The market value of the product, j II 'sl To preserve as far a=; possible ' j the working plans set out for the par- y ; j ticular forest, and the policv of the ii Depa.rt.meni of Forestry. 14 "During the war period this forest \ was cut over very much in advance of j the periods named, it being so near the ' British front line, that engineering .; materials could be delivered up to the J line by motor lorries, etc. Rut against ; ! this advanced cutting was the fact t ! that the forest, was converted from a ' mixed species, hornbeam predomtnatr iug (a wood which has now little com- ! ; merci.'il value, being chiefly used for I . cogwheels and cotton-spinning bob- , Jbhis), to a forest, of oak and ash. the ilwo most valuable woods at Home. "Unfortunately this work was enj lirely lost owing to the Germans, in j their advance of 101 S, getting right up to the edge of the forest, and demolI ishlng the whole of it with shrapnel j nnTl high explosive, the forest being cut down to the iasi tree. Incidentally the regeneration of this forest will he one of the most interesting studies in modern practical forestry. "There are some forests, mostly prl-« valely owned, which consist of brush-1 wood alone, and these are cut out J every ten or twenty years according I to the district, and' the demands for j fuel or other resulting products in the i district. The regeneration is from the old stumps left in the ground. ' "There are also the High Forests jj consisting of high timber in hard- i woods, a' good many of these forests being situated in the Somme and northern part of France. The one in which T worked, procuring material for the Vimy advance in 1!>17. was just over the reverse slope of Mont St. , Eloi. and about a mile from the Ger- * 1 man front line. { f "These forests require special sylvi- j cultural systems which are too lene- \ thy to detail here. There are again ! j the pine forests of Les Sandes. Jura. I j eic, and the coastal sand-dune plan-1 ! tations. These latter are mostly hand- { | planted, but the former are very j | mixed in variety, grown from seed. ; i hand-planted, regenerated from seed.! ! etc. | "Then there are the spruce forests - t of the Vosges. Here is the finest tim- • | her in France and the most wonderful J i forests. These were, up to recent * years, purely of spruce, but certain i numbers of beech-trees have now been j introduced by hand-planting. these j being supposed to eradicate some of | the fungoid disease? which were; spreading in these forests and occa<- i ioning much trouble and alarm to the j v forest service. The regeneration is J I natural, and as this particular spruce ! will stand a great deal of shade, yon ! get a very considerable growth under-" neath the long standards of matured j timber. Clumps of young trees may i be seen growing sturdily from seed, but the disparity of ase can easily be . ! noted, this being accounted for by the ; fact that these trees seed only every I I several years. ' i "I have rut timber in this forest 130* ! feet to the first branch and from SO to 40 inches diameter at the butt, with i a very slight taper to the head ; in fact • I have cut 14ft logs out of this tim- !' her which hare had no appreciable , J difference at either end. j I "The Forestry nrtnctDles atrplied in i these forests are much the same as , already mentioned, onlv of course. s, governed by quite different methods

of forestry practice owing to the na- t ture of growth, habits, and also lo . climatic conditions in these mountains. \ ."A thing that struck me in the S spruce forests of the Vosges was the ( class of soil this timber was growing ? on. In some places sturdy spruce \ trees might be seen growing out of / practically, solid rock. There is no \ depth of soil, and the floor of the for- e est is very similar to the class of J country to be seen in the bush up the ) Ohau river. Of course there are table > lands and gently sloping valley* which i have accumulated sufficient humus from the shed pine-needles, -and the growth In these places Is correspond- 1 ingly marked. \ '•'ln a conversation I had with a I French Forestry Commandant, M. E. ' do Lonciieville." regarding the climate <■ in the Vosges and the bearing the forests have on same, he stated thai ■. there was no qutestiorr. as to their bene , ntinp: Ihe surrounding countrv, ;■■ - causing to be produced, oena.'Vial 1 rains more regularly than would < her- t wise be the case, But in the v -zr?-> proper it was always ds>;.ic L-.vcer. in . the heart of sun,me'- \yj -trier :t 'titled or not, owing to he, woudor. ■ '••■ teutive qualities of the soil formed y • the pine needles on the mountain tones and valleys. "As to the price at which this timber can be sold after the cost sus- ' tained in its growing, I may state that ( rtririne the war period, the average ( price'paid for timber by the British < Government, was somewhere in the vicinity of 40 francs per metre cube, which'reduced to English measures approximates 10s per 100 ft super. This figure represented royalty paid. the'British Government having then to do the milling, but it must be remembered that these prices represent the inflated values of the war period, and I know that prior to the war, baulk timber and scantling sizes, in deals were selling In London at Timber Exchanges at lOd per loot cube. "] would sav in conclusion that the feature of forestry in France which appealed most forcibly to me, was the numerous industries subsisting on he c e forests and I say without hesitation that where forests are established and producing timber, the mrmstrv nl Urn sun-rounding country is increased to a considerabl extent. Of !"„,« I-Yame is an old and set ert enunti-y but Sew Zealand some da\ win crow old, and it is obvious [,,,,, | n ,ii,Mrv will com* to the availI ■,!.[,', omplir- of limber. It will not ',. -!-,!.i'i-i. itself and wait f»r the tim- ' '.'".■• n, rrrow Purely herein is a lesson I r,,,- local bodies adjacent to I ,vrisf.o and unproductive tracts of country."