HIGH FOREST AND COPPICE COMPAEED. 173 



have already seen that the value of firewood has 

 diminished instead of increasing. 



Again, since high forest furnishes more considerable 

 as well as more useful produce than coppice, it is 

 evident that the revenue derived from it must he 

 larger. But to obtain this larger revenue, it is 

 necessary to accumulate a vast quantity of standing 

 material, owing to which circumstance the ratio of 

 revenue to capital engaged is small. This is equiva- 

 lent to saying that those proprietors alone who do 

 not consider their forests as a strictly pecuniary 

 investment, are interested in growing high forests 

 or in preserving those which they already possess, 

 as such. 



Lastly, a high forest, hy the constant and complete 

 manner in which it shelters the ground, ensures the 

 improvement of the soil, and hence improved pro- 

 duction in a higher degree than coppice. For still 

 another reason, it can be shown that coppice is not 

 so well adapted to improve the soil; it has been 

 proved that the greater proportion of ash is found in 

 young wood and in the outside layers of old trees ; 

 it therefore follows that repeated cutting of the 

 underwood impoverishes the soil more than would 

 be the case in high forest worked on a long rotation. 



From all these different points of view, it is 

 evident that the private proprietor has no interest 

 in converting coppice into high forest ; on the 

 contrary, it would be to his advantage to realise at 

 once the standing material of any high forest he 

 may possess and turn it into coppice. If he is 

 owner of a forest of conifers, which is from its nature 



