270 CONVERSION OF COPPICE INTO HIGH FOREST. 



served, its growth is obviously not stopped, the leaf-canopy conti- 

 nues to rise away from the ground for several years, and, when it 

 consists ot mixed species, the stock thins itself spontaneously all 

 the earlier, the more rapidly the clumps of short-lived trees dis- 

 appear ; and, lastly, the faculty of producing seed increases as that 

 of throwing up shoots diminishes. But complete fertility is not 

 attained until the crowns have acquired a certain fulness and the 

 older stool-shoots have become small trees. Copses of oak and beech 

 often do not become completely fertile until about the age of 

 60 years. Complete fertility betrays itself on the ground by the 

 seedlings which make their appearance, no matter what the soil on 

 which the seed falls. Hence to regenerate a copse by seed it suffi- 

 ces to allow it to grow on until it becomes really fertile, and then, 

 and only then, to proceed to make Kegeneration Fellings in the 

 manner best suited to the species concerned. This end is attained 

 all the earlier and the more effectively, the more numerous the 

 standards are. From the observations we have just been making 

 it follows that the conversion into high forests of the State copses 

 ought not to be undertaken except on the condition that the 

 crops contain within themselves all the necessary elements to se- 

 cure the regeneration of the forest by means of self-sown seedlings 

 of the one or several species, which it has been decided to rear as 

 high forest trees. When these elements are wanting or are present 

 only to an inadequate extent, it is much better to wait and to con- 

 tinue working the forest as coppice until a sufficiently large number 

 of standards has been reserved with which to obtain a more or less 

 complete sowing of the ground. It is only then that the Regenera- 

 tion Fellings can be taken in hand in a really timely manner, and 

 the new seedling crop obtained without any expenditure and with 

 the fullest possible measure of success, provided always that the 

 conversion operations are carried out with all due care and fore- 

 sight. 



Such are, as regards the condition and composition of a com- 

 pound copse, the circumstances that, in our opinion, should exist to 

 justify its immediate conversion into high forest. We now proceed 

 to inquire what conditions as regards the soil it is necessary or 

 simply expedient to have in order to grow a high forest, and what 

 circumstances reudcr urgent or desirable the conversion into hio-h 

 forests of the copses belonging to the State. 



