638 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Passing to the question of treatment, in the first instance 

 the three chief systems of coppice, coppice with standards, and 

 high forest present themselves. The partial or wholly coppice 

 systems have found favour in the past for a variety of reasons, 

 the chief amongst which were : 



(i) More frequent returns and the consequent employment 

 of less capital. 



(2) The provision of conditions more suitable for the rearing 

 of game. 



(3) The simplicity of regeneration and management. 



(4) The larger volume production of wood within a given 

 period. 



Added to these the common error of miscalculating the 

 financial yield from coppice with standards gave this 'system 

 an apparent advantage over high forest. 



As regards considerations of sport, these only find place 

 in any scheme for economic afforestation to the extent to 

 which the effect on the sporting rental influences the financial 

 yield. There are hardly any areas suitable for forests that 

 will not yield larger returns under proper treatment than if 

 managed solely for sport ; where sporting considerations are 

 permitted to determine the method of treatment, the adverse 

 effect on the forest yield must be treated as the cost of so 

 doing. 



Frequency of returns and the employment of less capital 

 are undoubted attractions to the private owner, but do not 

 carry the same weight in a national scheme in which the first 

 financial consideration must be highest sustained yield on the 

 investment. It needs only a brief examination of the principles 

 of coppice systems to show that they do not ensure this to 

 the same extent as high forest. 



In the first place the treatment is applied chiefl}^ to broad- 

 leaved species, the demand for which does not show an increase 

 approaching that for coniferous timber ; and again the yield is 

 not of the same variety as in the case of high forest, and so 

 the financial success is dependent on the demand for a restricted 

 variety of produce. The far-reaching effect of this is illustrated 

 by the poor returns now obtained from coppice forests in 

 most countries owing to the substitution of other fuel for 

 firewood and the employment of more powerful tanning 

 materials than the bark of oak coppice. Generally speaking, 



