264 The yournal of Forestry. 



for use during the wiuter, or sold at once if not wanted for home con- 

 sumption. Attend to the open drains, and see that they are cleared of 

 all rubbish, and get all the fences which have been injured during the 

 process of clearing the coppice, put into good, repair. The cordwood 

 ranges and fagot stacks should always be built near to a gate, so as 

 to avoid taking heavy lumbering waggons through amongst the stools, 

 and thereby inflicting much injury on the adventitious buds from 

 which the next crop must proceed. 



Thin out the shoots from coppice stools cut over last season, leaving 

 two or three more shoots than may be necessary for a crop ; these 

 shoots to be thinned out in the course of a year or two, when it can be 

 better seen which shoots are the best to leave to grow to a full size. 

 Such second thininngs ought to be carefully saved for nursery or garden 

 stakes, for which there is generally much demand when the shoots are 

 straight find clean-grown. 



Look out for beetles and caterpillars preying on the young shoots and 

 leaves of specimen Conifers, and take all available means to stop their 

 ravages, as the injury they inflict is not soon overcome, especially if it 

 is the leader they have attacked. Should the leader of a specimen 

 Conifer have been injured a year or two ago, and not giving signs of 

 forming another good leader, tie up the best placed and strongest side 

 shoot, which will quickly form a nice leader, if proper precaution is 

 taken to stop the points of all the other shoots likely to compete with it. 



SCOTLAND. 



Oak plantations which have been thinned during the bark season 

 should now be gone over with the hand-saw, and all dead branches 

 cut off close to the trunk of the tree. The woodman should also 

 carry an old hedge knife with him, and trim all the spray off the boles 

 of the trees as he goes along. He will also find many straggling 

 branches hanging down, in consequence of their having lost the 

 support of those trees which have been cut during the recent thinning ; 

 these should either be lightened, if it is possible to do so, or else cut 

 off altogether, as they are sure to be twisted by their own weight 

 before the winter sets in. The oak brushwood by this time will be quite 

 dry, and it should be disposed of before it rots, either by being made 

 into fagots for sale or burned on the ground. Foresters are finding out 

 that in proportion as they keep their plantations free from decaying 

 brushwood, so in proportion are they freed from insect pests, and 

 along with that advantage a plantation looks a great deal better, and 

 any work that requires to be done in it is accomplished with half the 

 difficulty, when the brush is systematically cleared off the ground. 



Old trees in pleasure-grounds and in the vicinity of mansion-houses 

 should also have the spray cut from off their stems and bases this 

 month, as it can be better seen while the foliage is on. 



