236 THE WORKING SCHEME IN COMPOUND COPSES. 



belongs to the Organisation Project, and the examination and dis- 

 cussion of reasons, inseparable from a subject of so much difficulty, 

 leads in the case of every forest to the drawing up of a regulation, 

 which forms part of the Working Scheme, and which we will 

 term the Selection Plan of Standards. 



This Plan is based on the exploitability of the standards of each 

 species concerned. In forests managed by the State, the standards 

 that are expected to yield builders' and artificers' timber ought to 

 be preserved up to their individual maturity. The Selection 

 Plan of standards should mention the species to which such 

 standards should be restricted, the relative order of preference to 

 observe with regard to them, the longevity of each species, and the 

 signs that indicate that they have become mature. The apprecia- 

 tion of these facts is necessarily left to the entire discretion of the 

 Executive Forest Officer. The Selection Plan of Standards should 

 also give a list, in their order of importance, of the secondary 

 species, such as the hornbeam, the birch, and some others included 

 in the reserve. It should state the reasons for preserving a cer- 

 tain number of individuals of these species either up to the end of 

 the third Rotation or up to the moment they reach the cate- 

 gory of standards of the third class. It should indicate and ex- 

 plain the reasons for any exceptions that may be called for to the 

 general prescriptions of the second clause of Section 70 of the Royal 

 Edict of 1827, and by this means obviate the evil results that would 

 arise from their strict application to all the standards without dis- 

 tinction of species. It is impossible to fix in advance the number 

 of standards of the several classes to reserve at each exploitation, 

 at least as regards the standards intended to yield timber. This 

 is due to the fact that no standards ought to be felled except 

 when they are mature, unless they are decayed, misshapen, or bad- 

 ly placed. In certain cases large trees approaching maturity may 

 form the most numerous class ; in other cases, it may be the second 

 or third class of standards that may compose the largest portion of 

 the reserve, thus rendering it impossible, in selecting the trees to be 

 reserved, to establish a fixed or the desirable proportion between the 

 various classes. These irregularities in the distribution and num- 

 ber of the Standards may present themselves even from coupe to 

 coupe, and even from one point to another in the same coupe. There 

 is no immediate remedy for this, and all that can be prescribed in 



