48 CoprsE Woops. 
plant a few trees of different kinds wide apart between the stools, 
and, by taking a little care during the first few years, to see that 
these young trees are not smothered by the luxuriant growth from 
the stools, very good results are being obtained. In a small way 
I have been experimenting on how to deal with copse woods for 
18 years, and I am bound to say that I think the least satisfactory 
portion is that treated as proposed by Professor Schlich. It may 
be, however, that this is my fault, but I found that there was 
great difficulty in maintaining a proper balance between the stool 
shoots and the young trees. When I planted larch at about 6 ft. 
apart among the stools, I found they either got overtopped or too- 
much drawn. When I planted Douglas at about 9 ft. apart 
among the stools, I have found that after 10 or 12 years the 
Douglas are getting too complete a mastery over the stool shoots, 
even though these have been thinned out to one or two on a 
stool to allow of greater vigour, and the result will very soon be 
pure Douglas, which will never make clean timber, because they 
are not close enough of themselves, and the hardwood was not 
dense enough to kill off the bottom branches of the Douglas. 
My first experiment was, however, in 1888, to cut a portion about 
2 acres clean over. Unfortunately, a few standards of oak and 
birch were left, which would have been much better removed, 
as they have spread, taken up too much room, and caused breaks 
in the canopy. At this time I had just read an account of 
the Taymount plantation on Lord Mansfield’s property in Perth- 
shire, which was planted with Douglas 12 ft. apart, and filled in 
with larch to 6 ft. apart. The result of this was that the Douglas 
killed out the larch, and became themselves much too rough to: 
form a good timber crop. I therefore decided to put in my 
Douglas 12 ft. apart, and fill in with larch to 4 ft. The 
result in this case has been not that the Douglas have 
suppressed the larch, but that the larch has suppressed the 
Douglas in a large number of cases, and still what Douglas have 
got through have not lost their side branches, as is necessary they 
should do to make clean timber. The only portion where the 
Douglas have gained the complete mastery is a small bit where 
the planting was commenced, and where my forester put in 
double the number of Douglas I intended, and even here the 
Douglas have not clean stems. I have made some measurements 
of trees in this plantation, and find the average height to be 
sill 
a ee 
