324 Forestry Quarterly. 



not yet been undertaken. The system of coppice with standards 

 is a speciahy of the French, satisfying the double needs of fuel 

 wood and larger construction timber; they have a knack of 

 handling this type and of securing good yields even on unpromis- 

 ing sites. 



But the French government as early as 1826 conceived it as 

 its economic duty to raise the larger timbers requiring the longer 

 rotations, which the French market demanded but which the 

 private or commercial owner could not afford to raise. Thus 

 for nearly a century France has held to the policy of letting the 

 private or commercial owner raise what he pleases — which is 

 usually small stuff, fuel, low grade lumber and the like — while 

 the national forests are devoted to the raising of the larger 

 timbers. Thus France is in interesting contrast to such countries 

 as Saxony and Wiirttemberg, and in fact in entire contrast to 

 the new school of forest economists in Germany, who claim 

 that revenue is the only correct touchstone in forestry- French 

 Forestry does not stand on a financial basis, solely, but, like 

 Prussian forestry, on the assumption that the forests are a na- 

 tional heritage to be preserved as such for the good of future 

 as well as present generations, aside from whether it "pays" 

 in present dollars and cents. 



Proceeding on this principle, the French government early 

 in the nineteenth century began the conversion of these hard- 

 wood sprouts into high forest. A gigantic task, truly. 



The process of conversion is, briefly, as follows. Instead 

 of cutting the coppice at the thirtieth year as is usually done, 

 it is allowed to grow until the sixtieth year or thereabout. 

 During the last decades it is necessary to free the crowns of the 

 seed-bearing standards from the encroaching coppice. This is 

 done by means of preparatory cuts (Coups preparatoires) at 

 intervals of about ten years. When the coppice is about 60 

 years old, the regeneration cuttings (Coups de Regeneration) 

 begin. Their object is to open up the stand by cutting most of 

 the coppice, allowing the seed from the standards to regenerate 

 the area. Most of the coppice is cut but not all ; for usually 

 some sprouts of the best species (oak, ash) are left. Of course 

 any seedlings already on the ground are most carefully pro- 

 tected. The stand is opened up more for oak, less for beech 



