172 TIMBERS AND THEIR USES 



and clean felUngs, yields a higlier return on the 

 capital invested in it than high forest, and it 

 also furnishes material of greater variety than 

 can be obtained from the latter. The inhabitants 

 of the communes mainly require firewood and 

 small size timber : these the coppice system 

 supphes. Together with a modification of 

 standard coppice it is in practice in nearly all 

 broad-leaved forests of the communes, the high 

 forests owned by these bodies being chiefiy in 

 mountainous parts, and consisting of conifers, 

 which will not reproduce from the stool. The 

 State, however, maintains more than half of 

 its productive forests for the supply of mature 

 timber of commercial value, its proportion of 

 coppice being less than a third. The rotations 

 under high forest are much longer than under 

 coppice, and it might be expected that the 

 returns under the former system would be less 

 than under the latter. It appears, however, that 

 the returns from the State forests are ^eater 

 in quantity and superior in quality. 



There are two local variations of simple 

 coppice. In the Aidennes region of North-East 

 France, sartage is practised. The chips and twigs 

 left after cutting the coppice-wood are collected 

 and burnt on the ground, the ashes thus obtained 

 being used to manure the cereal crop, which 

 is planted between the stools during the follow- 



