THE WORKING SCHEME IN COMPOUND COPSES. 2S7 



the Selection Plan is the preservation as first class standards, quite 

 irrespective of number, of well -constituted individuals of the princi- 

 pal species, taking care that they are spaced in such a manner that 

 every one of them may be in a position to form a full, healthy 

 crown. As regards the secondary species, on the contrary, it is 

 necessary to restrict the number of the standards between an upper 

 and lower limit, since they naturally occupy the place of more 

 valuable species, and may even do harm to the reproduction of these 

 latter, when they are too numerous. 



Thus, the Selection Plan may be drawn up in the most simple 

 manner.^ It ought to contain information indispensably required 

 by the Executive Forest Officer ; it ought to support the proposals 

 made by adducing the most important facts connected with the 

 growth of the forest ; it ought to demonstrate the necessity of ta- 

 king account of the condition and position of each tree before deci- 

 ding to preserve or fell it, of noting the object to keep in view and 

 the difficulties to be met with in selecting the trej,'! to be reserved, 

 and, by means of the special care and attentijc which it should 

 enjoin in the carrying out of this operation, of making it attractive 

 for the operating Executive Officer, fully weighted as he is with 

 the interests and responsibility entrusted to him. Moreover, we 

 cannot fail to draw up a good Selection Plan if we always bear in 

 mind that it is the thickness of the reserved trees and not their 

 number, which constitutes the wealth of a copse as of a high forest. 



§ 2, Division into Coupes and the Tabular Exploitation Scheme. 



The division of a Working Circle into coupes, i. e., the drawing 

 up of a Working Plan based on area, is effected on the same prin- 

 ciples in copses with standards as in simple copses. Thus each 

 natural canton must be divided into an integral number of equal 

 coupes bounded by lines following the natural movements of the 

 ground. The successive exploitation of the coupes must be arranged 

 exactly in the order in which they follow each other on the ground, 

 barring the few breaks that are unavoidable during the first passage 

 of the explotations i. e., during the First Rotation. Each coupo 

 should be provided with a convenient export road to serve as an 

 outlet for its produce. And lastly, the coupes should be arranged 

 so as always to conform to the Third Rule for locating them. 



1. See example given at the end of the chapter. 



