Tree Planting in France.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3259, 18 July 1889, Page 2

Tree Planting in France.

lii tho northern districts of France the systematic planting of trees is carried on by the communes, which are something like the County Councils or Eoad Boards of this colony. Every highway has its two rows of trees growing, ono on each They aro very .accurately and aro generally about fifty feet apart, Writing on this subject in the American Agriculturalist, Mr 0. L. Allan has' the following " The tree principally plsntedis tho black poplar (populas nigra), a rapidly growing species, attaining s, height of lrom sixty to seventy feet, When tho branches are about two inches in diameter, about four-fifths of them aro cut close to the trunk, leaving the tree with a brush-like top. These branches are made into bundles six inches in diameter, and sold aa faggots. This is about the only fueLy used in the agricultural districts of France. Theso fagots sell at fifteen francs (about 12s) per hundred. A tree sixty feet in height will yield about thirty of these faggots every seven years, which is the regulation period for cutting. When the boll reaches a diametea of from fifteen to twenty inches, the trees aro cut, the lower portions being sold to work up into matches, and tho tops, or knette, portions for charcoal, In ono doparfT mont, Maine et Loire, the annual revenue from these plantings, £BOOO is used as a fund for keeping roads in repair, and the surplus for such pur. pqses as the conimuno may determine, No country lias finer roads than France; they are all macadam* ised and perfectly smooth, Yet the revenue necessary to proTido auoli perfect roads is all derived from road-side treos, To a stranger who is at all observant,tho trees in Franco present a singular appearance in their various st'ttttiiOf growth, Some are closely dimmed; others show from one to seven years growth. The poplars are stiff and whilo the oaks and walnuts some fantastic forms, In a ride o(-'' three hundred miles ljy railway, without anyone to question and these trees on every side, one's curiosity _ is greatly excited, and his imagination pictures every cause for these strange forms except the right* one—tho revenue. irf