296 COMPOUND COPSES UNDEE CONVERSION. 



established fact that every fall of acorns and beech mast, even the 

 most abundant, frequently produces only a partial crop of seedlings. 

 But the oak and the beech trees in a large forest bear no incon- 

 siderable quantity of fruit almost every second year. The conse- 

 quence is that in a Primary Coupe, that is not allowed to close up 

 and form a complete leaf-canopy again, we find self-sown seedlings 

 come up, at first few and far between, but increasing in number year 

 after year, until they form a complete thicket. If then, after a few 

 years, say, 5 or 6, the seedling crop has not produced itself with 

 sufficient completeness, there ought to be no hesitation in restorinn- 

 the state of the Primary Coupe, which must have by this time dis- 

 appeared owing to the spreading out of the crowns of the standing 

 trees. The operation which effects this consists in clearing'the soil 

 once more of brushwood and stool-growth, in cutting away poles 

 bent down under their own weight, in pruning off all low epicorms. 

 and, lastly, as the leaf-canopy is again complete, in opening it out 

 here and there by the removal of some of the poles. A.fter that one 

 must have patience and wait. 



But as soon as the soil is dotted over with seedlings of the 

 principal species, it is necessary to begin a Secondary Felling. In the ' 

 first of these Fellings the operation should be restricted simply to 

 the bare isolation of the crowns of the trees or poles overhead. The 

 reason for this is evident, for what is wanted is simply to open out 

 the leaf -canopy sufficiently to enable seedlings already on the grouud 

 to maintain themselves and make their first effort of crrowth. Under 

 the amount of cover thus produced, hornbeam seedlings are sure to 

 come up, if they have not already done so ; and, besides this, stool- 

 shoots and suckens, if any appear at all, will possess but little vigour, 

 while it will be impossible for the softwoods and the birch to invade 

 and get the upper hand of everything else. Hence the expediency 

 of repeating the Secondary Felling from time to time, and of keep- 

 ing down stool-regrowth by cutting back at least the more injuri- 

 ous shoots. Under this treatment the young forest of oak and horn- 

 beam, or of beech, oak, and hornbeam, according to the prevailino- 

 soil, will form itself under the most favorable conditions, and this 

 even if the oak plants in it are scattered, or are as much as 10 feet 

 apart, provided always that the proportion of the associated species 

 is large enough. 



