1885.] OAK COPPICE. 493 



observe that there is a general decrease of offences connected with 

 injury to forests by fire, which had recently been causing trouble 

 and alarm, and suggestions are made to assist in protection fro^ 

 fire by a cheap system of fire lines, which have proved successful in 

 preventing accidental fires from spreading in other districts. Kefer- 

 ring to the modes of forest reproduction, the report approves of both 

 natural and artificial methods being recognised and practised accord- 

 ing to the varied conditions. In nearly all the hill divisions 

 nurseries are established for the production and rearing of Deodar, 

 but every means is also taken to foster natural production, by means 

 of artificial culture. The quantity of timber received in depots 

 during the year shows a decrease of 492,038 cubic feet, which is 

 attributed to scanty floods on all the main rivers. 



The Eeport of the Central Provinces deals witli all the details of 

 forest management already alluded to in the foregoing notice of the 

 Punjab Eeport, and shows a substantial increase in the financial 

 results. 



In the Eeport of the Hyderabad Assigned Districts there is little 

 of interest, except that the financial results are very satisfactory. 



OAK COPPICE, ITS MANAGEMENT AND TREATMENT. 



[Contributed to the " Transactions of the Highland and Agricultural 

 Society^' hy Andrev: Gilchrist, Uric, Stonehaven) 



ACONSIDEEABLE extent of the woodlands of Scotland, parti- 

 cularly in the counties of Argyle, Dumbarton, Stirling, and 

 Perth, being occupied with a crop of oak coppice, its treatment and 

 management form a most important branch of the Forestry of 

 Scotland. Oak coppice is grown for ornament and shelter, as well 

 as profit, on many estates, and we have only to glance at it as it 

 decks the shores of many of our most beautiful Scottish lakes, or 

 contemplate it as it clothes the rugged slopes of some romantic 

 mountain or deep glen, to realize how peculiarly appropriate it is, 

 and how well adapted to contribute to the wild grandeur and 

 natural scenery of these Highland situations. Even in tlie vicinity 

 of a mansion-house there are many portions of ground, as, for 

 example, on the sides of a drive, or in a belt on the outskirts of 

 the lawn, where it may be desirable to have an extensive view, and 

 at the same time concealment from the outside, where oak coppice, 

 interspersed with a few standard trees, forms the most suitable 

 crop. When these places are divided into nearly equal portions. 



