216 ON NATURAL COPPICE WOOD , 



about eight feet apart, and tlie intermediate spaces made up with 

 hazel and mountain ash to four feet over all. 



2d, On similar situations but with a damp boggy soil, as also 

 on all marshy undrained portions of laud, the alder should be 

 planted by itself 



2>d, On less exposed parts, with a deeper and better quality of 

 soil, the ash, sycamore, and hornbeam may be planted at nine 

 feet apart as the main crop, and the ground filled up with 

 mountain ash or hazel to about four and a half feet apart. 



4///, Peat moss, if properly drained, may be profitably planted 

 with the common ash, at ten feet apart as the permanent crop^ 

 with birch or mountain ash as nurses. But on imperfectly 

 drained moss the birch and alder are the moot profitable trees. 



bth, Poplars, chestnuts, elm, and lime trees are best suited for 

 good deep soils with a considerable shelter, such as the hollow 

 parts of plantation ground; there they may be planted at ten feet 

 apart, with the mountain ash and hazel between. 



In forming coppice plantations some recommend the planting 

 of larches as nurses, but after considerable experience and obser- 

 vation we are inclined to think that this is not a judicious 

 practice, because the trees that are to constitute the crop of 

 coppice are liable to be overdrawn, and this has a great tendency 

 to prevent them from becoming so stout at the collar as they 

 ought to be, and always are when grown by themselves. 



In planting trees for a permanent crop of coppice wood, it is 

 very desirable, as far as possible, to have each variety planted in 

 a clump by itself; when this is done, it is generally found that 

 the crop is more remunerative, and grows up more regularly. 



When rearing young trees for the purpose of converting them 

 into a coppice wood, the great aim should Ije to encourage them 

 to becom.e branchy and stout in the stem, with a good diameter 

 at the base, which insures a large-sized healthy stool for the 

 growth of the subsequent crops. 



The hazel and mountain ash should be cut over as soon as 

 they are seen to be sufficiently strong for being sold as wands or 

 rods, which they will be after from six to ten years' growth, 

 according to soil and situation ; while the other sorts will 

 generally take from twelve to eighteen years to attain a dia- 

 meter of 4 to 6 inches at the base, which is the size they ought 

 to be before they are cut over for the first time. At the first 

 and at all subsequent cuttings, the stools should be made as low 

 as possible, and have a surface so sufficiently smooth and convex 

 as to entirely prevent water from standing on them. 



After the first croj) has been cut over, the shoots that spring 

 from the stools should be thinned out when they have grown 

 from two or three seasons, leaving from six to eight of the best 

 on each stool ; a preference should always be given to those shoots 



