CHAPTER III. 



ORGANISATION OF COPSES WITH STANDARDS. 



SECTION I. 



Compartments. Woeking Circles. Rotation. Exploita- 

 bility of the standards. 



In copses with standards the Compartments and Working 

 Circles are formed in the same manner as in simple copses, and 

 with the same objects in view. In any case, in studying and de- 

 scribing the forest, special attention should be paid to the reserve, 

 not only because it represents the principal element of production, 

 but also because in the growth of the trees (trees in the strict 

 sense of the word), of which it is composed, it furnishes the most 

 certain criterion we can have of the fertility of the soil. 



It is no doubt expedient to group together to form each Work- 

 ing Circle crops growing under the same conditions of fertility 

 But besides that this procedure presents many difficulties, there is 

 no great harm in including in the same Working Circle compart- 

 ments ot unequal fertility, provided that the species composing the 

 underwood can all be exploited at one and the same age. 



As a matter of principle the length of the Rotation to adopt in 

 copses with standards is irrevocably governed by two conditions. 

 In the first place, it cannot exceed the age at which the underwood 

 would cease to reproduce itself completely from the stool ; and, in 

 the second place, it must be long enough to allow the future first- 

 class standards (viz., those to be reserved from amongst the under- 

 wood when it is cat) to attain a length of bole sufficient to let them 

 be considered as tall trees, and a diameter large enough to enable 

 them to stand being isolated. Determined on these considerations. 

 Rotations for copses with standards would, as a rule, be comprised 

 between 30 and 40 years. 

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