OF OTHEK SPECIES THAN OAK. 215 



poses to wbicli its wood can be applied ; still it always meets 

 with a ready sale for turning purposes. The same remarks may 

 be applied to the hornbeam, the only difference being that it 

 grows on a poorer soil and its shoots are rather more elastic, 

 consequently, its thinnings sell better as wands and rods. 



The beech, compared with the foregoing trees, is at best some- 

 what tardy in sending up shoots from its stools, otherwise it is 

 very similar to the hornbeam. 



The wild cherry makes a good coppice tree ; it grows freely 

 on thin soils, and produces numerous shoots from its stools, and 

 propagates itself from seeds. The shoots are tough, and quite 

 saleable at all ages, for purposes similar to the birch. 



The mountain ash is a first-class coppice tree for the produc- 

 tion of wands and small crate wood ; it is ver}^ hardy, and grows 

 freely on very poor soils and exposed situations, and is very 

 suitable for growing on rocky shelves of glens. 



The hazel is also a hardy reproductive plant, very similer in 

 almost every respect to tlie mountain ash. Both trees being 

 mainly adapted for the production of the smaller class of coppice 

 wood, and are consequently most suitable for being planted as 

 intermediate stools among stronger growing plants, such as ash, 

 elm, and sycamore. These trees are also the most profitable and 

 vigorous growing plants that can be planted to produce a crop 

 of underwood in hardwood plantations. 



Several of the poplars, such as P. nigra, P. alba, P. tremula, 

 grow vigorously as coppice wood, and the shoots are very sale- 

 able for the manufacture of hampers and crates. If the situation 

 is somewliat sheltered, such as a hollow, dampish part of a 

 plantation, they are by no means particular as to quality of soil, 

 and are very profitable as a coppice, especially when grown in 

 clumps by themselves. One of the largest proprietors in Kin- 

 cardineshire has planted about a million of P. nigra at the foot of 

 the Grampians, with the intention, we understand, of converting 

 them into a coppice for the production of wood to be manufac- 

 tured into pulp for paper-making. This is a new branch of 

 industry that deserves to be carefully and impartially inquired 

 into, and the results brought under the notice of landed pro- 

 prietors before they are recommended to plant poplars indis- 

 criminately on land that might be very profitably occupied with 

 larch and Scots firs. 



The above list comprises most of the trees that are usually 

 grown as natural coppice in Scotland, and in regard to their 

 suitableness for the various soils and situations they may be 

 classed as follows : — 



Is^, For .high lying and exposed situations, with a thin soil, 

 the best trees are the birch, hazel, and mountain ash. The 

 birches would constitute the main crop, and should be planted 



