122 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



formerly coppice-with-standards, but it is now being converted 

 into oak highwood, with a rotation of i6o years. For this 

 purpose the forest is divided into two working-sections, and each 

 of these is subdivided into four blocks, with a regenerative period 

 of 40 years each. During the first period, regenerative fellings, 

 fixed by volume, take place in the first periodic block; preparatory 

 fellings by area in the second and third blocks; and coppice 

 cuttings in the fourth. 



For purposes of conversion, when the last fall of coppice takes 

 place, a selected number of oak stores or tellers are left to grow 

 into the overwood, and so form the highwood crop. 



Where the oak is too thin to give a sufficient number of stores 

 or tellers, these are either supplemented artificially by planting 

 or by also leaving a few beech or hornbeam to complete the 

 number required. The old standards are at this time entirely 

 removed. 



It was not until 1868 that the actual conversion of this forest 

 was begun, although preparatory fellings had been carried out 

 many years before. At the present time, therefore, there is but 

 one-fourth of the whole area which has been converted into high 

 forest, while the remaining parts are in the transition stage. 



All the principal trees in this, as in most other forests in 

 France, are regenerated naturally, with the exception of a few 

 isolated places where natural regeneration has been retarded, or 

 rendered impossible, owing to circumstances over which the 

 forester has no control. In such instances, planting is resorted to. 



All through the tour, members were much struck by the 

 apparent ease with which those forests are regenerated. In 

 Champenoux, oak, beech, and hornbeam seedlings were seen 

 springing up as evenly and as thickly as if the seed had been 

 artificially distributed. To procure those satisfactory results, 

 however, great care has to be exercised in the management of 

 the crop from its earliest years until the final felling takes place. 



Certain conditions in the soil and crop are necessary to bring 

 about successful natural regeneration. In the first place, there 

 must be a certain number of seed-bearing trees. Those selected 

 for seed-production should be tall, straight individuals, with 

 crowns of normal shape and size, and should be left at as regular 

 distances apart as possible. Kinds which bear heavy seeds, 

 such as oak and beech, require to be left thicker on the ground 

 to sow a given area than is necessary for trees with winged 



