COMPODXD COPSES UNDER CONVERSION. 285 



ponent species, but only of sufficiently well-graduated ages, and 

 above all, old enough to furnish at once and without any inter- 

 ruption principal produce, that is to say, to admit of being worked 

 profitably and continuously for the market. 



Such are the general conditions which it is always possible to 

 realise after a Preparatory Period of sufficient length, equal, say, to 

 a long Coppice Rotation. Occasionally, of course, there are circum- 

 stances of an exceptional nature to be met with, such as compart- 

 ments so rich in seedlings, or saplings and poles sprung up from 

 seed, that they can be transformed into a true high forest by means 

 of mere Improvement Cuttings accompanied with the extraction 

 of a few trees. It is evident that such crops would find their 

 natural place either in the last Block or in the first, since regenera- 

 tion by seed has already been effected and the chief and sole object 

 of the conversion fully accomplished. In other cases, in compound 

 copses in which the beech is the dominant species, it may happen 

 that by far the greater proportion of the stock of a large part of the 

 forest has sprung up directly from seed, stool-shoots, birches and the 

 soft woods being in the minority. Here, instead of continuing to 

 work the last few Blocks as Coppice, it is often found advisable to 

 execute therein mere Improvement Cuttings or even simple Trans- 

 formation Cuttings. These latter operations, consisting as they do 

 in the extraction one by one of the i-eserved trees, of stool-shootg 

 and of the soft woods, may be found suited either for whole Blocks 

 or for only some of their component compartments. There are many 

 other special circumstances to be met with. Neverthless, all things 

 said, copses seldom, if ever, lose their inherent constitutional defect 

 due to their having grown up from the stool ; and as the presence 

 of stool-shoots in the midst of seedlings is the greatest danger to 

 be obviated or overcome in the conversion of a forest, it is wise to 

 mistrust all exceptional cases in drawing up the General Working 

 Scheme : too often such exceptional cases are entirely delusive, and 

 exist only in the imagination of the Amdnagiste. 



SECTION III. 



Special Schemk of Exploitations. 



The various combinations, which enter into the organisation and 

 working of a forest in each of the hypothetical cases of conversion 



