26,Q THE EESEBVED rOTTETH^, 



SECTION III. 



Treatment. 



The Treatment of the Reserved Fourths of communal forests i» 

 much more important than even their organisation. On this sub- 

 ject, as nearly all the Reserved Fourths hitherto established are 

 worked as copse, although the Forest Code just stops short of pre- 

 scribing their treatment as high forest, and the Royal Edict admits. 

 HO term for their exploitation except the beginning of decay of the 

 individual trees, it is advisable before everything else to indicate the 

 rules and the principal points to observe and attend to in making 

 the Extraordinary Compound Coppice Fellings. 



In the first place, as regards the age for exploitation, most crops 

 constituted as copse can with great advantage be allowed to stand 

 on, and not be cut except as compound copse, until they are 40 

 yeara old. It is not rare for a copse of that age to yield in hard 

 cash four times as much as a copse of 20 years, while the first-class 

 standards preserved are worth eight or ten times as much. Only it 

 is advisable to make, after the crop has reached the age of, say, 30 

 years, a suitable Thinning as a preliminary measure. This operation 

 improves the growth of the underwood as well as of the standards, 

 while in addition to this it yields saleable produce and necessarily 

 provokes the appearance of seedlings, which become useful later on. 



The selection of trees for standards is regulated by Section 70 

 of the Royal Edict of 1827. We know that Section 70, by its second 

 clause, which is of universal application, prohibits the fellirigs- of 

 standards of the second and higher classes, unless they are in a de- 

 caying state or are unable to live for another Rotation. On this 

 head it was not possible to prescribe any thing more for the extraor- 

 dinary cuttings than for those made in the regular way. As regards 

 first-class standards, their number is fixed in the case of the ordi- 

 nary fellings at 16 at least and 20 at the most per acre by the first 

 clause of Section 137, which runs thus : — " In the fellings made in 

 Forests belonging to Communes and to Publio Foundations the re- 

 serve prescribed by Section 70 of the present Edict shall consist of 

 \Q first-class standards at least and "iSi at most per acre." But in 

 the Reserved Fourths these figures must be respectively 24 and 40 



