214 OUR COPSES AS THEY ARE. 



same copse 10 years earlier. At the later age it consists principally 

 of large poles, the branches of which, in the high leaf-canopy they 

 fown, are aloae equal to all the thin branchlets which compose 

 the whole stock at the lower age. Moreover, at the former age cir- 

 culation under the leaf -canopy overhead is easy : the copse is no 

 longer the tangled mass of thin wiry stems it was ten years before. 

 If the age of felling is raised, before many Rotations are over, the 

 relative proportions of the various component species become entire- 

 ly changed, and this for the better. Indeed, in lengthening the 

 Rotation there is everything to gain, nothing to lose. ButJ unfor- 

 tunately the greater portion of our copses belongs to private pro- 

 prietors, who all, or nearly all, commit, the egregious mistake of 

 exploiting their forests too early (at 12, 15, or at the outside 18 

 years), when they could in nearly every case double their income 

 by simply doubling the duration of the Rotation. If proof of this 

 is wanted, here it is. As a rule the money value of a copse at the 

 age of 30 years is at least four times that of the same 15 years 

 earlier, so that by doubling the Rotation and exploiting only half 

 tlie original area, the receipts would still be twice as large as what 

 is now obtained by exploiting at 15 years instead of at 80. 



SECTION II. 



Copses with Standards. 



The designation of Coppice with Standards, Compound Coppice, 

 Coppice under High Forest, or High Forest over Coppice we apply 

 to the method of treatment which consists in growing above the 

 copse or underwood trees of lai'ge size belonging especially to the 

 species oak, such trees standing out well away from each other 

 and, for that very reason, growing under conditions different from 

 those obtaining in completely canopied high forest. The produc- 

 tion, in a comparatively short time, of oaks of the largest size and 

 of closer grain than those grown in regular high forest, the rearing, 

 in a secondary manner, of large trees of other valuable species such 

 as ash or elm, which do not come up well in close leaf-canopy, such 

 are the chief advantages offered by the Compound Coppice method 

 of treatment. As regards the underwood, or copse properly so 



