274 OONTEBSIOM OF COPPICE INTO HIGH FOREST. 



A well constituted high forest of the pedunculate oak would, 

 we believe, yield much more valuable produce. But at present 

 none such exists anywhere in France in the soils we have just been 

 describing. Moreover, on account of the difBculty of substituting 

 a high forest for copse in very rich soils which are liable, the mo- 

 ment the leaf-canopy has been rent, to be overrun with high 

 grass and the soft woods, we consider that for the present it is 

 better to maintain the present Regime and simply to perfect it as 

 far as possible, than to undertake conversion operations under 

 extremely difficult conditions and with doubtful prospects of 

 success. 



