488 APPENDIX 



eaux de I'age qui seront abbattus a la revolution suivante" (coppice "cut entirely, or with- 

 out other reserves than of an age which will be felled at the next cutting"). 



Le taillis compose ou taillis sous futaie "dans lequel les haliveaux reserves sont destines d 

 Tester sur pied pendant au moins trois revolutions" (coppice with standards, in which the 

 reserved trees are intended to remain standing for at least three rotations). (Definitions 

 from the official Statistique forestiere, Forest Statistics.) 



Since, however, no binding definitions can be applied to the question of reserving 

 standards in private forests, essential variations occur in practice. 



The peculiarity of the coppice with standards system, consisting of the juxtaposition 

 of isolated uneven-aged seedlings and even-aged sprouts, has persisted much longer and 

 more definitely in France than in most German forests. Their management has been 

 extraordinarily conservative for centuries. Even now the visitor to the forests comes 

 across the old monuments and bounded areas reserved in determining upon the manage- 

 ment and working limits, which were estabhshed in accordance with the ordinances of 

 Colbert. The communal forests, likewise, have been under management for more than 

 two centuries. In Germany, coppice with standards, which was formerly extensively 

 employed in well settled regions of hardwood forest, has undergone far greater changes. 

 In many cases it had already developed into irregular transition forms by the 17th and 

 18th centuries. In the 19th century it lost its original character, even in the case of 

 well-regulated management, because of the fact that systematic efforts were being made 

 in the direction of establishing a generous forest capital of overwood. With such a 

 stand of overwood as most of the German advocates of coppice stands with standards 

 recommended " — doubtless rightly, considering the increased revenue — the advanced 

 reproduction of the underwood could not maintain itself vigorous over the entire area; 

 it was partly destroyed. This is true to a yet greater extent when the overwood is 

 held over in the form of groups as is frequently looked upon as the rule. Similar condi- 

 tions exist respecting regeneration, which likewise is conducted mainly in the form of 

 groups. In a group the growth of the young stuff is in accordance with the laws of 

 growth characteristic of the high forest. 



The following notes on the French system of managing coppice with standards (apart 

 from stands which were observed from time to time in the course of the railroad ride) 

 apply, chiefly, only to a small forest of 193 hectares (476 acres), belonging to the hospital 

 at Blois which we were permitted to inspect very minutely at the point where it ad- 

 joined a high forest on a similar range under the management of a forest manager. 

 In spite of its small acreage it was, nevertheless, very well suited for giving a person 

 an idea of the features which characterize the French system of managing coppice with 

 standards. The condition of this forest affords excellent data on the history of the 

 standards, the political measures of the French administration, and the technical 

 principles of management. Moreover, the revenues from the management for a decade, 

 which were told us, afford a very good basis for forming an estimate of the economic 

 value of the system of coppice with standards. 



The organization under consideration is of general interest, first with regard to the 

 technical management, and, secondly, with regard to a review of the system of coppice 

 with standards from the economic standpoint. 



(a) TECHNICAL ASPECTS OF THE TREATMENT OF THE COPPICE WITH STANDARDS 



The standard in accordance with which the management of coppice with standards 

 is regulated is in France, on the whole, very uniformly maintained. The unforeseen 



" E. G. Schuberg. Zur Betriebsstatistik im Mittelwald (Statistics of management for 

 coppice with standards) (citv forest of Durlach, with 250-350 m.' (8,830-12,360 cubic 

 feet)); Lauprecht, Aus dem Miihlhaiistr MUtdwald (250 m.^) (8,830 cubic feet). (From 

 the coppice with standards forest of Rltihlhaus.) 



