210 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICUBTURAL SOCIETY. 



(b) As regards the Coppice Underwood. — The present condition 

 of the underwood is abnormal in two respects, namely: — 



1. In many places there are blanks, or the stock is far from 

 being of normal density ■ 



"2. Over most of the area the stock consists of species of trees 

 which are not the most remunerative kinds that can be 

 grown on and in the given soil and situation. 



These defects can be much more easily and speedily remedied 

 than the defects in the overwood. By sowing or dibbling in seeds 

 of oak, ash, maple, sycamore, chestnut, beech, and in damp places 

 also hornbeam, on prepared patches in autumn or spring, much 

 can be done to improve the density of the underwood, and to raise up 

 seedlings from which a good class of stores may be selected to form 

 standards. These patches may be made of about four feet square, 

 the earth being hoed or delved up and thoroughly mixed and pul- 

 verised before sowing the hardwood seeds. The soil-covering should 

 vary according to the size of the seed, being somewhat over an inch 

 of earth in the case of acorns and chestnuts. Although slower in 

 attaining the object in view, the sowing and dibbling in of seeds 

 of hardwoods has the advantages over planting of being much the 

 cheapest method of improving the crop, and of being far less exposed 

 to danger from rabbits, as local experience has shown. Material 

 assistance can also be effectively rendered by the local system of 

 "plashing" or layering ash and other hardwoods. This method of 

 layering is strongly to be recommended in moist localities prone to 

 heavy growth of weeds which would be likely to choke seedlings. 

 Both of these measures should be carried out to a large extent 

 during the next two or three years, so that, if this can be con- 

 veniently done, the whole area under copse (171 acres) may be 

 gone over and improved within a very short period. If this sug- 

 gestion be carried out, then at the time of the first regular fall of 

 coppice the outer seedlings round all such dibbled patches should 

 be plashed and the inner seedlings allowed to grow up to form the 

 future stores. Most of the copsewoods seem well suited for the 

 growth of ash and sycamore, and these species should be encouraged 

 as largely as may be found practicable. Birch and aspen should 

 be treated as weeds, and cut out wherever they are found interfer- 

 ing with the growth of hazel and hardwoods, and the latter should 

 be freed from interference by hazel wherever the more valuable 



