NOTES AND QUERIES. 87 



band saw for breaking up the timber, and with live rollers to 

 convey the larger sawn material to a circular saw with fence, 

 and the slabs from these two saws to another circular for 

 manufacturing the smaller classes of material. 



W. H. Whellens. 



Coppice Standards. 



I heard a statement a short time ago to the effect that 

 "standards in coppice were left for the express purpose of 

 growing crooked timber for ship-building." So far as my 

 experience teaches me, those that left standards for that purpose 

 would defeat their own ends both as regards the crooked 

 timber and the growing of coppice. 



In selecting poles to be left as standards, the straightest and 

 lightest topped ones were selected. This is not only modern 

 experience, but also that gained from the old coppice cutters ; 

 men with no knowledge of systematic forestry, but who 

 always had left the best poles and had learned to do so from 

 their fathers before them. They may not have been able to say 

 why they left the best poles, but it certainly, on the face of it, 

 would not be to grow crooked timber. The good poles that 

 were left were soon again surrounded by the young coppice which 

 would crowd upon them and suppress any side shoots to nearly 

 the height they would attain at the end of a rotation of twenty 

 to twenty-five years. The branches above that height would 

 certainly have more freedom for development, but unless the 

 owner of the coppice wanted to have it killed out, he would 

 keep them within bounds by pruning (instances of which are 

 to be seen on standards of all ages in our coppice woods). 

 Years ago, young coppice had a ready sale and would yield 

 a return much higher than that from the thinly scattered crop 

 of standards, and it would be poor policy to kill the goose 

 that laid the golden eggs. The larger branches may have been 

 and undoubtedly were used for boatbuilding, but to say the 

 trees were left for that purpose is, in my opinion, very wide 

 of the mark. 



The result would have been better if a very thin crop of trees 

 had been planted and allowed to grow unheeded, but to start 

 from coppice stores would be to lose twenty-five years or so 

 before the trees were even allowed to start side branches. In 



