3872 SYLVICULTURE. 
literature of France and Germany. A full discussion of the 
methods of sylviculture would, indeed, be out of place in a 
work like the present, but the want of conveniently accessible 
means of information on the subject, in the United States, will 
justify me in presenting it with somewhat more of detail than 
would otherwise be pertinent. 
The two best known methods of treating already existing 
forests are those distinguished as the ¢az/lis, copse or coppice 
treatment,* and the futaie, for which I find no English equiva- 
lent, but which may not inappropriately be called the fudl- 
growth system. <A taillis, copse, or coppice, is a wood compos- 
ed of shoots from the roots of trees previously cut for fuel and 
timber. The shoots are thinned out from time to time, and 
finally cut, either after a fixed number of years, or after the 
young trees have attained to certain dimensions, their roots be- 
ing then left to send out a new progeny as before. This is the 
cheapest method of management, and therefore the best wher- 
ever the price of labor and of capital bears a high proportion 
to that of land and of timber; but it is essentially a wasteful 
economy.t+ If the woodland is, in the first place, completely cut 
* Copse, or coppice, from the French cowper, to cut, means properly a wood 
the trees of which are cut at certain periods of immature growth, and allow- 
ed to shoot up again from the roots; but it has come to signify, very common- 
ly, a young wood, grove, or thicket, without reference to its origin, or to its 
character of a forest crop. 
+ ‘‘In America,” says Clavé (p. 124, 125), ‘‘ where there is a vast extent of 
land almost without pecuniary value, but where labor is dear and the rate of 
interest high, it is profitable to till a large surface at the least possible cost ; 
extensive cultivation is there the most advantageous. In England, France, and 
Germany, where every corner of soil is occupied, and the least bit of ground 
is sold at a high price, but where labor and capital are comparatively cheap, it 
is wisest to employ intensivé cultivation. . . All the efforts of the culti- 
vator ought to be directed to the obtaining of a given result with the least 
sacrifice, and there is equally a loss to the commonwealth if the application of 
improved agricultural processes be neglected where they are advantageous, or 
if they be employed where they are not required. . . In this point of 
view, sylviculture must follow the same laws as agriculture, and, like it, be 
modified according to the economical conditions of different states. In coun- 
tries abounding in good forests, and thinly peopled, elementary and cheap 
