COMPOUND COPSES UNDER CONVERSTOX. 277 



In examining the compartments, special attention should be 

 paid to the standards, to give a good idea of which the Am^nagiste 

 must note the species to which thej belong, their soundness and 

 vigour, their number and distribution, their vitality, and the length 

 of their boles. At the same time the constitution of the under- 

 wood must be regarded from the point of view of its mode and 

 vigour of growth, of the relative proportions of the component 

 species, of stool-shoots and seedling plants, of the density of the 

 stock and the effective causes that have brought about its present 

 state. It should always be borne in mind that the chief object of 

 the examination is to ascertain what available resources the copse 

 examined offers for its conversion into high forest by means of 

 natural reproduction. The situation and the soil must be descri- 

 bed and considered in the same manner as in every other case of 

 forest organisation ; but, as a rule, the safest criterion of the fertility 

 of each compartment is to be found in the way in which the stan- 

 dards have grown up and are actually growing, and in the habit, 

 height, and degree of vigour of the formed trees. 



The examination of the compartments thus conducted and 

 recorded serves before everything else as the basis for the constitu- 

 tion of the Working Circles of the future high forest, and for the 

 determination of the Rotation to adopt in each of those Working 

 Circles. 



§ 2. JVuilcing Circles. 



When the forest to be converted covers a large area and con- 

 sists of a number of Working Circles of compound copse, it is advis- 

 able to group together in each Working Circle of the new organisa- 

 tion a certain number of the former. Many advantages result there- 

 from ; for instance, the Am^nagiste may by this means be able to 

 form each of the Periodic Blocks either of a whole Coppice Working 

 Circle or of contiguous and similar portions of several such Working 

 Circles. Cases in which this is feasible are rather rare ; yet when the 

 opportunity offers itself, it should be seized at once, as it facilitates 

 the drawing up of the General Working Scheme, the advantageous 

 distribution of the felled produce, and the successive preparation of 

 the standing stock for the conversion operationB as they fall due. 



