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and coppice under standards, in which standard trees are selected and reserved, 

 with a view to their remaining throughout several generations of coppice shoots, 

 generally at least three, but often four or five. Many forests are now undergoing 

 conversion from the system of coppice to that of high- forest. 



The following statement shows the extent to which the two systems were 

 applied in the State and communal forests in 1876, since which year no important 

 changes have taken place. The areas are given in square miles : 



It will be seen that there is a marked difference between the State and 

 communal forests in this respect. In the former nearly three-quarters of the 

 total area are either now under high-forest or under conversion to that system ; 

 while in the latter two-thirds of the total area are under coppice, and less than 

 one third is either under high forest or under conversion. 



High forest being usually destined to produce large timber, the trees must 

 be left standing until they have attained a considerable age ; and the capital, 

 both in timber and money, which is locked up in it is therefore much larger than 

 that in a forest under coppice. Other conditions being equal, the quantity of 

 wood produced annually is, however, much the same under both systems ; but 

 owing to the greater value of the produce obtained from the high-forest, its 

 money revenue is greater than that of the coppice, while on the other hand, it is 

 found that coppice yields a higher rate of interest on its smaller capital value than 

 than high forest, and on this account it is a more suitable system for adoption by 

 communes. Coppice possesses, also, a further advantage for them, in that it yields 

 for the use of the inabitants timber and other produce more varied in kind and 

 dimensions than are obtainable from high-forest, and it thus satisfies their 

 requirements, which are chiefly in fuel and small-sized timber, much better than 

 forests managed under the latter system. But even in cases where the conversion 

 of communal coppice to high-forest is deemed advisable, it is always found diffi- 

 cult to reduce the annual fellings to the quantity necessary in order to allow the 

 growing stock to accumulate to the required extent ; while the small size of the 

 greater part of these forests renders them unsuited to the treatment which they 

 would have to undergo in order to effect their conversion. The coppice system, 

 including coppice under standards, is therefore in vogue in almost all communal 

 broad-leaved forests, such high-forests as the communes possess being found chiefly 

 in mountainous regions, and being composed of coniferous trees, which will not 

 coppice. The area of communal forest shown a? under conversion, consists princi- 

 pally of tracts in which the coniferous trees are spontaneously taking possession 

 of the ground and driving out the broad-leaved species. It follows from what 

 lias been said above, that the Sbita alone cm, generally speaking, raise broad- 

 leaved high-forest on a large scale, or undertake the conversion of coppice to high 

 forest. 



A further difference between the systems of culture generally adopted for 

 the State and the communal forests may be noted, viz., that whereas in the former 



