228 SELKCTEON OP Sl^iNDAEDS. 



Hereon hinges the success itself of the organisation and treatment 

 of such forests. We must hence dwell on this subject in a special 

 manner. And here the facts connected with the actual carrying out 

 of the operation require to be as fully discussed as the general 

 principles themselves on which it is based. 



SECTION II. 



The Selection of Standaeds in Compound Copses. 



The trees to reserve as standards to grow above the underwood 

 or copse proper should be selected chiefly from among such species 

 as can yield timber. In the first line of these we must enter the 

 peduncled and sessile-flowered oaks, the cultivation of which species 

 as isolated specimens originally gave rise to the Compound Cop- 

 pice method of treatment, and is still to this day its chief 

 raison d'Stre, 



After these two oaks, which are to be met with in nearly 

 every one of our copses, we will cite, as coming after them in 

 point of importance, the elm and the ash, and then the beech, 

 the true service tree {Pyrus Sorbus), the wild service tree, the 

 wild cherry (Prunus avium, Linn.) and the aspen. None of these 

 species, however, ought to play more than a secondary rdle in the 

 constitution of the reserve. As a rule, therefore, they ought not 

 to be reserved except in order to take the place of the oak, when 

 that species is quite absent or is represented only by individuals 

 of no promise whatsoever. Nevertheless, when in any copse the 

 growth of one of these secondary species is fine and vigorous, 

 it really seldom happens that there is no interest in reserving a 

 few good specimens of it and maintaining these until complete 

 maturity. Choice individuals of any species whatsoever will 

 always yield large timber of no inconsiderable value. Hence the 

 surest indication of the usefulness of any given standard is, after 

 the species to which it belongs, the state of its growth. 



It is equally expedient to include among the standards of the 

 Ist.class, and even among those of the 2nd. class, a few individuals 

 of certain species, like the hornbeam and the birch for instance, 

 with a view to the production of a sufiicient supply of seed and. 



