176 ELEMENTS OF STLVICULTUEE. 



applied to any given forest. Later on when circum- 

 stances favourable to saving present themselves, the 

 ultimate object in view should receive undivided 

 attention, that is to say, conversions, now rendered 

 easier by the improvement of the coppice, must be 

 taken in hand. Considering the vast extent of 

 woodland composed of coppice with standards, the 

 impossibility of undertaking the conversion of the 

 whole at once, and the fact that the operation of 

 conversion itself requires the continuance of coppice 

 in certain portions, this system will remain for a 

 long time to come the principal mode of growing 

 our forests. It cannot, therefore, be too carefully 

 studied. 



CHAPTEB II. 



EXAMPLE OF A CONVERSION AND THE CUL- 

 TURAL OPERATIONS IT NECESSITATES. 



IT is beyond our scope, in a manual of sylviculture, 

 to discuss all the combinations of economic forestry, 

 by which a coppice is eventually converted into high 

 forest. Still as the purely cultural operations are 

 intimately connected with these combinations, it 

 is necessary to pass them in review by taking an 

 example representing the most general case. 



Before proceeding further, it is necessary to lay 

 down certain points, which may almost be regarded 

 as axioms. 



I. A conversion ought to be undertaken in the 

 most economical spirit. Natural reproduction, 



