252 COMPLBMBNTAET WORK m THE ORGANISATION OP COPSES. 



ly renewed, their only effect is to diminish vegetative vigour, and 

 they have often been known to cause the premature decay of oaks 

 that had already grown up into strong healthy trees. They only 

 affect detrimentally the quality of the timber of oak, elm, and ash 

 trees, and, after all, interfere with a proper mixture of the softwoods. 



The keeping of a Control Register is of great use in the case 

 of copses with standards, and this chiefly for the information it can 

 furnish about the standards. The keeping of such a register, giv- 

 ing a simple but complete account of all necessary facts and cir- 

 cumstances, must be enforced by the Organisation Project. If, to 

 take a particular case, in marking for Standards it was decided to 

 exclude from the second class all trees exceeding 12 inches in 

 diameter, and to note down in the Recorder's Field-book every 

 standard of the third and and higher classes measuring 20 inches 

 in diameter and upwards, it would be easy to keep a separate ac- 

 count in the Control Register (i) of all veterans, which possess 

 for us a higher value than any other portion of the crop, (ii) of 

 trees from 14 to 18 in inches in diameter, comprising all standards 

 of the third and higher classes except the veterans, ( iii ) of trees 

 with a diameter of 12 inches and less, comprising all the second- 

 class standards, and (iv) of all the standards of the first class. 

 With the oaks noted separately and all other species grouped under 

 a single head, the Register would be full of the most valuable in- 

 formation respecting the forest concerned. Then, again, if Control 

 Registers were kept everywhere, the Forest Department could know 

 at once how many large oak trees we possessed in France, and how 

 many it was raising to take their place when they would be felled. 



