COXVERSIOX OF COPPICE INTO HIGH FOREST. 273 



Comt^, and of Longchamps ia Burgundy, the sessile-flowered oak 

 in the drier portions or on rolling ground, the pedunculate species 

 in the moist or wet portions, associated the one with the beech, the 

 other with the hornbeam or with such species as can be grown 

 there with the greatest advantage. 



Going up the ascending scale of soils according to their fertility 

 for forest purposes, if we look at the forests situated on old or recent 

 alluvial deposits, such as are to be met with on the banks of the 

 Saone and of the Adour, or in localities analogous to those of the 

 forests of Mont-Dieu in the Ardennes, of Coucy-Basse in the 

 Aisue, and of the majority of the forests in the plains of Southern 

 France, we cannot but regret to find only copses there, where the 

 finest high forests of oak could be reared. But the pedunculate 

 oak, the only one of our two principal oaks that can be successfully 

 grown in these rich and wet soils, possesses a very light cover. 

 Even when standing close enough together to form leaf-canopy, it 

 affords to the soil below but little of that protection so necessary 

 to preserve its fertility and to prevent its becomiuo- overrun wich 

 grass, and to assure to its own bole the amount of shade necessary 

 to save it from an invasion of epicorms. When raising it as a Jiio-h 

 forest tree, it becomes incumbent, much more so than in the case 

 of the sessile-flowered species, to associate with it some species 

 possessing dense foliage, like the hornbeam for instance, to com- 

 plete the leaf-canopy. 



In these very soils, the pedunculate oak grown as a standard 

 over copse shoots up rapidly and acquires a considerable length of 

 bole. It yields a close-grained wood, less suited than that of the 

 sessile-flowered species for the purposes of the cabinetmaker and 

 the cooper, but valuable for the civil and dockyard engineer, and, 

 as a rule, for all purposes which require combined strength, elasti- 

 city, and durability. Thanks to its light cover and to the heiorht of 

 its crown above the ground, thanks also to the exceptional fertility 

 of the soils in question, in which the aspen, the ash and the alder 

 flourish, the underwood alone, filling up the space between the 

 crowns of the standards, yields a considerable quantity of produce, 

 which in certain districts, where poles of all species are used for 

 mine stays, commands an extensive sale at remunerative prices. 



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