Jj;>] Government Forestry Abroad. 29 



of the treatment is a cutting over of the coppice 

 shoots or sprouts which spring up from the old 

 stumps at regular intervals of from fifteen to forty- 

 five years. In order to make the return annual 

 and fairly uniform it is only necessary to divide the 

 whole forest, if it be small, or each of its units of 

 management, if it be large, into as many compart- 

 ments of equal productive power as there are years 

 in the rotation of the coppice, and to cut over one 

 such compartment each year. 



At each cutting the best of the young seedlings 

 which may have grown up among the coppice, or of 

 the coppice shoots themselves if the seedlings are 

 wanting, are left to grow on for two, three, four or 

 even five rotations of the underwood. Being thus 

 comparatively isolated these standards produce wood 

 very rapidly, while, at the same time, their number 

 is so restricted that they do not seriously interfere 

 with the growth of the coppice by their shade. The 

 disadvantages of the treatment are the large propor- 

 tion of low-priced firewood which it yields, and the 

 severe demands which it makes upon the soil. But 

 this national French treatment," as it has been 

 called, has very many qualities which recommend it. 

 It is the form of treatment which } T ields the highest 

 per cent, of return on the capital invested, as well 

 as the highest absolute volume of wood (if we except 

 the high forest of coniferous trees). According to 

 the forest statistics of 1878. the most recent source 

 of information, the average yield of coppice under 

 standards in France, under State management, was 

 fifty-nine cubic feet of wood per acre per annum, 

 about one-fourth of which was lumber and the rest 

 fuel, hoop-poles, etc. A net annual return of 5 per 



