274 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 



paid to the owner in possession; while under 

 Scots law an heir in possession under an entail 

 can cut the timber as long as his possession 

 lasts. 



One advantage of copse over highwoods is 

 that an annual fall can be provided for even 

 in small woodlands. For working highwoods 

 properly large areas are needed ; copsewoods, on 

 the other hand, do not necessarily require large 

 areas. On comparatively small tracts of two 

 or three hundred acres the management can be 

 so arranged as to yield small annual supplies 

 of timber of various sizes at each fall of the 

 underwood. Another advantage of copse, besides 

 the comparatively small capital which it locks up, 

 as compared with high timber forest, is that it is 

 one of the most convenient forms of management 

 under which an abnormally heavy fall of timber 

 might perhaps be arranged for to meet the de- 

 mand of death duties on a change of ownership in 

 the estate. The utilisation of a large proportion, 

 or even all, of the largest classes of standards 

 would, although of course otherwise to be re- 

 gretted and a cause of ultimate loss, not produce 

 such disturbance in the general management as 



