COPPICE WITH STANDARDS. 147 



DISTRIBUTION OF THE STANDARDS. There are 

 few remarks to make on this subject, because in the 

 majority of cases we must be guided by circum- 

 stances. If it is necessary to reserve all seedlings 

 and vigorous oak shoots on young stools, reserve 

 them by all means, and once they become second 

 class standards, their condition of growth alone will 

 decide whether they ought to be felled immediately 

 or spared for another rotation. Only it must be ob- 

 served that there is no advantage in preserving a 

 young oak standard under another which is capable 

 of living through several rotations ; in this case it is 

 better to cut it down and ensure the existence of a 

 young clump. When the different classes of stand- 

 ards are of mixed species, it would be an error to 

 preserve a second or third class standard of beech, 

 if it is perceived that before the next felling it must 

 damage a fine oak standard of the first class ; such 

 procedure would be justified only if oak was very 

 abundant and beech very rare, both in the reserve 

 and in the coppice. 



It has frequently been considered advisable not to 

 preserve standards of the same class situated near to 

 each other, especially when they belong to the third 

 and fourth classes. Unless the standards are of 

 beech, which, moreover, it is useless to allow to grow 

 to a very old age, it is, on the contrary, advantageous 

 to have several third and fourth class standards 

 growing together in a clump. The reason is that 

 these trees draw each other up and acquire a greater 

 length of bole than if they were isolated. They 

 therefore contain more useful timber, and under the 



