294 COMPOUND COPSES UNDER COXVERSION. 



It )3 advisable to repeat them pretty frequently, say, every 10 

 or 12 years. As regards the manner in which they must be made, 

 the main points to attend to are (i) to set free the crowns of 

 the standards that are surrounded on every side by the underwood, 

 (ii) to diminish gradually the proportion of the softwoods in the 

 underwood by removing such individuals of those species as inter- 

 fere with the development of poles of the hardwoods, and by thin- 

 ning out some of these latter where they are growing too close to- 

 gether, and (iii), and lastly, to thin out the stool- clumps by extract- 

 ing the weaker of the erect shoots, so as to strengthen the crowns 

 of the rest. But every thing that helps in covering the soil, such 

 as overtopped ahoots, and even trailers, brushwood and bushes of 

 every species, ought not to be removed except in the Last Thin- 

 ning, viz., that which immediately precedes the Regeneration Fell- 

 ings. All the standards without exception, which can prove useful 

 in the regeneration, ought to be respected. It is chiefly, and one 

 may say, even solely, on the standards that we have to rely for sow- 

 ing the ground. Besides this ws could not remove a large tree 

 without breaking the leaf-canopy and thus encouraging the appear- 

 ance of brushwood in the space now covered by the lofty crown of 

 that tree. And more than this, to cut down any of the standards 

 means to deprive the compound copse of its most effective elements 

 of production. 



The essential object of the Preparatory Cuttings is thus to se- 

 cure general favorable growth and the development of trees of the 

 hardwood species, primarily in the reserve and subsidiarily ia the 

 underwood. Their execution is at the same time difficult, and ad- 

 mits of no vacillation and timidity on the part of the operatino' 

 forester. 



SECTION II. 



The Regeneration Fellings. 



In conversion operations the Regeneration Fellings comprise 

 Primary and Secondary Fellings. 



The Primary Felling can be made the more eflFectively, the 

 more numerous the standards are. Considering the circumstances 

 in which those trees have grown, each one standing well away from 

 the rest, and all possessing a spreading orown, it is obvious that 



