272 CONVERSION OF COPPICE INTO HMH JOREST. 



through it and through the underlying fissured rocky strata. 

 Nevertheless the forests situated on these limestone plateaux are 

 not so liable to deteriorate under the coppice treatment as forests 

 on silicious soils. After every exploitation, soils resting on lime- 

 stone rocks are overrun with various and abundant herbaceous 

 and shrubby growth, which protects it from the direct influence of 

 the sun's rays. On this account forests situated on such soils main- 

 tain themselves complete and full of vitality even after centuries 

 of treatment as copse. Nevertheless it is a matter of experience 

 that these copses grow slowly and yield at the age of 2.5, 30 or even 

 So years only small firewood. Such are the forests of Haye, of 

 Auberive, of Chatillon-sur-Seine, of Braconne, and a great 

 many others, the formation in question being very extensively dis- 

 tributed, and composing the largest proportion of the forest soil of 

 France. Now it is beyond dispute that the High Forest Kegime 

 is essentially suited for these forests, provided the beech is treated 

 there as the dominant tree, since it is the only one among the broad- 

 leaved species that can grow with some vigour and acquire large 

 dimensions in those soils. But it is advisable to associate with it 

 the sessile-flowered oak and to preserve, as stop-gaps to form a 

 complete leaf-canopy, individuals of the hornbeam which species 

 always grows in less or greater abundance in those copses, and 

 which more than any other helps to maintain them in full vigour. 



There are also other soils containing a larger proportion of clay 

 in the top-soil than those already referred to, large extents of 

 which bear forests that are treated as copse. They are for the 

 most part met with in the plains, sometimes on hilly ground, more 

 rarely on low mountains. They belong to very various geological 

 formations, such as the clay schists, the variegated sandstones, the 

 iridescent marls, the lias, the green sandstones, the Bressan rocks 

 &C. These soils, usually deeper than those referred to in the pre- 

 ceding paragraph, are always also molster and more fertile, and are 

 as a rule, adapted for the oak. The forests that cover them stand 

 being worked as copse perfectly; but it is Indisputable that on 

 these soils, being as they are of average fertility and suited for the 

 oak, the High Forest Rt^gime yields much better results than that 

 of Coppice. Instances of such forests are those of Champenoux in 

 Lorraine, of Trois Fontaines in Champagne, of Chaux in Franche 



