SILVICULTURAL SYSTEMS. 



19 



apt to he unsound, ])ocause the old stumps decay and 

 infect the sprouts which spring from them. 



SIMPLE COPPICE, 



It often happens, as in Pennsylvania or New Jersey, 

 that a tire sweeps over the second-growth hardwood 

 lands and kills all the young trees down to the ground; 

 hut the roots remain alive, and from them spring 

 young sprouts a])out the bases of the burned trunks. 

 After several years a 

 second fire may fol- 

 low and kill back the 

 sprouts again, and 

 other fires may con- 

 tinue at intervals to 

 burn over the land, 

 each followed b}^ a 

 new crop of sprouts. 

 When a farmer does 

 with the ax what is 

 often done by fire he 

 is usino- the svstem 

 of Snuple Coppice. 

 Let us suppose a farmer has a woodlot covered prin- 

 cipally with chestnut sprouts which he wants to man- 

 age for the steady production of railroad ties. He 

 knows that chestnut sprouts are usually large enough 

 for ties at the age of 35 years. In order to insure a 

 steady yield of trees fit for ties, he divides the whole 

 woodlot into thirty-five parts of eciual productive 

 capacity, and cuts one part clean every year. All the 

 new sprouts that spring up on the part cut in any year 



Fig. 10.— Ideal sketch map of a sprout forest 

 managed under the sj'stem of Simple Cop- 

 pice. 



