COPPICE WITH STANDAKDS. 141 



ing and other timber, for which the demand was far 

 less than at the present day, possessed a relatively 

 low value. On the other hand fire-wood was con- 

 verted into charcoal, and found a steady market for 

 metallurgic purposes. In any case in the state of 

 charcoal, its transport cost little. Hence fire-wood 

 formed the principal produce of coppice with stand- 

 ards, and it was necessary to impede as little as 

 possible the growth of the underwood. We can 

 now understand why only one-third of the wooded 

 area was to be reserved for large trees, and the 

 remaining two-thirds given up to coppice. 



Circumstances have greatly changed in the last 

 thirty years. At the present day, thanks to good 

 roads, there is scarcely a single forest from which 

 large timber may not be brought. Railways, 

 development of manufactures, and general pros- 

 perity have increased the consumption of timber to 

 an enormous extent, while its production has 

 decreased. Moreover prices have more than doubled 

 since then. On the other hand, the substitution of 

 coke in metallurgy, has thrown out of the market a 

 considerable portion of the wood which used to be 

 made into charcoal. Leaving out the great centres 

 of consumption the prices of firewood have in many 

 instances fallen. The money value of a cutting in a 

 coppice with standards now depends solely on the 

 quantity of timber it contains, and -even private 

 proprietors are led by their own interests to pay 

 more and more attention to the reserve. Thus the 

 principle of limiting the reserve to a third of the 

 wooded area has now become entirely inadmissible. 



