HIGH FOREST AND COPPICE COMPARED. 171 



hedgerows in Brittany. If the knots are sound it is 

 a proof of the strength of the timber, and the breaks 

 in the continuity of the woody tissue do not prevent 

 its being employed entire. 



PART IV. 



CONVERSION OF COPPICE INTO HIGH 

 FOREST. 



CHAPTER I. 

 HIGH FOREST AND COPPICE COMPARED. 



To execute a conversion, signifies to change the 

 method of reproduction ; consequently in order to 

 convert coppice into High Forest, its regeneration 

 must be effected by seed, and that too in such a way 

 as to obtain exploitable timber at the end of the 

 operation. Indeed it is not enough to let coppice 

 grow on in order to turn it into high forest, since 

 the standing crop will be entirely the produce of 

 stools, and conversion will still remain to be done. 



But before undertaking an operation of this 

 nature, it behoves us to inquire what are the re- 

 sulting advantages. Without entering into details 

 of political economy, which belong to the province 

 of economic forestry, these advantages can still be 

 rendered sufficiently intelligible. 



It is beyond dispute that in the same interval of 

 time, high forest furnishes a larger yield than cop- 

 pice grown under the same conditions ; yet it is 



