492 APPENDIX 



In the State high forest, 2.91 m.^ (41.6 cubic feet per acre); communal, 1.73 m.^ (24.7 

 cubic feet per acre). In the coppice with standards, 4.26 m.^ (61.0 cubic feet per acre); 

 communal, 4.00 m.' (57.2 cubic feet per acre). If that kind of figiu-es were to be re- 

 garded as decisive the coppice with standards would obviously be the more profitable 

 type of management. But such a conclusion is probably unjustified. Statistics must 

 not be perverted to overthrow accepted existing facts. In view of the fundamental 

 principles of increment the production of wood, other things being equal, cannot be 

 greater in coppice with standards stands than in high forest, but really must be less. 

 In the large amount of brushwood itself, constituting almost half the entire cutting, 

 in which is contained much more of the soil nutrients than in the wood more than 2.8 

 inches in diameter at the small end (Derbholz) or in an abundant seed crop of isolated 

 trees ofithe overwood, there are two fundamental impulses which, as far as sustained an- 

 nual increment is concerned, act on the negative side of the balance. Moreover, stock- 

 ing is seldom as complete in the stands of coppice with standards as in the regulated high 

 forest. To understand the conflict of the French statistics of income with the actual 

 inevitable conditions, it must be remembered that in coppice with standards stands, 

 which are conducted very uniformly as far as rotation period and growing stock are 

 concerned, the entire increment is used and is used earlier, so that income and increment 

 are, at least approximately, equal. In the high forest this is not true. In the case of 

 these, especially in the State forests, utilization has remained very much lower than 

 increment. Moreover, in France as in other countries, coppice with standards stands 

 are located preferably on the more favorable sites. High mountains, rugged sites, 

 stony soils, are no sites for the coppice with standards. In many German States there 

 have likewise been evident results similar to those in France. The grand duchy of 

 Baden's statistics show the revenue from stands of coppice with standards as earlier 

 and greater than that from the high forests. But more recent statistics demonstrate 

 that the results obtained from the management of the high forest there are really superior 

 to those from coppice with standards, vmder similar treatment especially when thinnings 

 are properly conducted, and in spite of the unfavorable sites it occupies. This view is, 

 indeed, shared even by the exponents of the French system of forest management, 

 who have at their disposal a comprehensive knowledge of conditions throughout the 

 country. In Chapter 4, Part 2, of his work, "De V exploitabilite dans ses rapports avec 

 I'interSt public" (The age of maturity in its bearing upon the public interests), Tassy 

 summarizes the results obtained with high forest and with coppice with standards. 

 He arrives at the conclusion that under average conditions of growth the high forest 

 under good management could yield 6 m.' per hectare (86 cubic feet per acre) — "chiffre 

 tres modere (a very conservative figure)." The average yield from stands of coppice 

 with standards is, on the contrary, estim.ated at 4.30 m. (63 cubic feet per acre). 



This unfavorable showing of the absolute production of the coppice with standards 

 cannot be compensated for even by the ratio of increment to capital, or the growth 

 per cent. Compared with the high forest managed on a very long rotation period 

 with a proportionately large number of trees per hectare, the system of coppice with 

 standards does, it is true, present a very favorable appearance in the connection. But 

 it is easy to deceive one's self in that regard by measurements of single trees. The com- 

 parative annual increments of the coppice with standards are very unequal. Especially, 

 after the felling of the imderwood and openings in the overwood, the growth per cents, 

 of the younger age classes in particular, are very high, far higher than is necessary for 

 meeting the demands made on the production by the stands. Later, these conditions 

 are changed. They result more unfavorably than is the case in the high forest where 

 the decline in increment in the pole and standard ages can be far better met by means 

 of vigorous thinnings and openings. 



