496 OAK COPPICE. [Dec. 



the acre, and even this number should be cut over with the next 

 crop, and not be allowed to grow till they cover a large space of 

 ground, as they tlirougli time overshadow the coppice shoots, and 

 cause some of the stools to die out. 



Where ornament is an important consideration, it is a common 

 practice to leave a considerable number of old standards at equal 

 distances over the ground ; still, though this is desirable for tlie 

 sake of appearance, it is often carried too far for the profitable 

 growth of coppice. Large numbers of old branchy wide-spreading 

 trees will prove hurtful, and through time exterminate the coppice 

 stools. Wherever a number of standards must be interspersed with 

 coppice, they sliould be brought up under a judicious system of 

 foreshortening, and the strongest and most widespread of the side- 

 branches restrained and kept from overshadowing the coppice. 

 Before commencing to cut over the shoots, the proper method is to 

 send a person with a handbill, peeling iron, and a mell, and instruct 

 him in the first place to press down with his foot all the soil round 

 the collar of the stool (or shoots), and then with the handbill cut 

 through tiie bark to the wood, making a ring all round the base of 

 the stem of each shoot, not more than 2 inches from the surface of 

 the ground ; a similar ring is cut about 30 inche? higher up on tlie 

 boles, and the bark between the cuts is removed for the purpose of 

 preventing it from being rudely torn from the stool during the 

 process of cutting over the shoots. It also serves as a guide to 

 those who cut over the shoots, causing them to cut so as to have a 

 low stool. When the axe is used for cutting, the stools should 

 be sloped slightly up from two sides, so as to leave them with a 

 sufficient convexity to prevent water from standing on their surface. 

 It is absolutely necessary that the axemen who are employed should 

 be ambidexters, and most expert and neat-handed men ; when men 

 of this class are employed, they very often take an interest in the 

 work, and exert themselves to try how low and neat they can make 

 the stools. With good clean-cutting axemen the axe is better than 

 the saw for all shoots below 6 inches in diameter. 



On sloping ground the expert ambidexter, by standing on the 

 high side, can cut over the shoot neatly with the slope of the 

 ground, while those men who can only use the one hand always 

 leave a rough surface on the stool, and the one side higher than the 

 other. When the work is performed by these unpractised men, the 

 stools are often too high above the surface of the ground, and the 

 shoots that spring from these are never so strong as those that grow 

 from low stools, where they are able to send out individual roots 

 into the soil. When the cross-cut saw is to be used in cutting 

 over strong shoots, in order to prevent the stool from being injured 



