COPPICE WITH STANDAEDS. 143 



trees with long boles, seedlings will come up and 

 maintain themselves till the next exploitation. 

 These seedlings will then be cut back with the 

 coppice, and wherever a standard has been felled 

 will throw up vigorous shoots, which later on will 

 furnish the best and finest standards. 



Facts prove the truth of what precedes ; in other 

 words the theory is what it ought always to be, 

 practical deductions drawn from phenomena observed 

 in nature. As long as the Statute of 1669 was 

 rigorously obeyed (up to the beginning of this 

 century), the oak maintained itself most success- 

 fully in our coppices. The same may be said of 

 those forests where, subsequently to that period, the 

 spirit of the Statute was followed. It is only when 

 few standards were preserved, that the oak has been 

 observed to disappear, the natural sequence of cause 

 and effect. If the underwood is but slightly covered 

 by the reserve, it grows vigorously and never fails to 

 choke up seedlings, of which not a single one will be 

 found at the next felling. 



In the case of Communal forests, Article 70, under 

 the action of which they are placed by Article 

 134, has perhaps still greater importance, as it is 

 the only legal restriction in the hands of forest 

 officers to check the abusive enjoyment of usufruct 

 by the present generation. But the second clause 

 alone is applicable ; the first is replaced by the terms 

 of Article 137. This latter Article also contains 

 two clauses, of which the second, respecting the 

 allotment of one-fourth of the area to reserve, has 

 given rise to claims (on the part of communes) the 



