ON NATURAL COPPICE WOOD. 211 



had previously been doing ; as a whole they were not so saleable, 

 nor so sound as the younger trees were. The actual produce of 

 these two acres was 25 tons of birch at 12s. per ton, etj^ual to 

 L.7 10s. per acre. The seedling trees were doubtless the most 

 valuable. They were all quite sound and saleable, but not a 

 few of the others were dry and slightly affected with rot, and it 

 took a greater quantity of them to make a ton. A partial exa- 

 mination of these two kinds of birches was sufficient to convince 

 any practical man that these two acres might have yielded more 

 than the double of what they did. Had they been cut over 

 after about twenty years growth, at that age they would have 

 been quite as suitable for bobbin wood as they were at forty 

 years. If they had been thus allowed to grow up as a natural 

 coppice, the second crop would liave been closer, and, doubtless, 

 altogether much better than the first; but even though it had 

 only been the same, it is not too much to say that under judicious 

 management there might have been L.15 per acre for the forty 

 years instead of only L.7 10s. 



Another portion of damp ground in this same plantation (fully 

 two acres in extent) had been left undrained and planted with 

 larches, the actual value of which at the time of cutting was not 

 more than L.12 per acre, while the realized 'value of the larches 

 and Scots firs on the suitable soil was 1^.42 per acre, showing a 

 loss of L.80 to the proprietor. Now, had this portion of damp 

 ground been planted with birch and alders, and treated as natural 

 coppice, the return per acre for the forty years would have been 

 at least L.30. 



On most estates there are several acres of woodland very 

 similar to the above examples that might be most judiciously 

 turned to a better account by converting them into a natural 

 coppice. For instance, there are in some enclosures small por- 

 tions of damp or boggy land on which trees such as the birch 

 and alder have been planted and are allowed to grow for sixty or 

 more years, simply because the trees on the dry soil are not cut 

 down. It is an admitted fact by all practical men, that alder 

 and birch grow most rapidly during the first twenty years of 

 their growth, and that, in not a few instances, they begin to get 

 dry and affected with rot after about thirty years' growth. 

 Indeed, in cutting over old plantations, as well as in the periodi- 

 cal thinning, we have frequently cut down alders and birches 

 that were comparatively worthless, simply because they were 

 left too long. All this clearly shows that in many instances it 

 would be more profitable to take two crops instead of one, 

 even though there was no demand in the district but for fire- 

 wood. 



There are also many precipitous glens, by the sides of large 

 and small streams, that are almost inaccessible, and where the 



