THE CONVERSION OF STORED COPPICE INTO HIGHWOOD. 103 
If a nurseryman has to keep his plants till they are of this 
size a very big price will have to be paid for them, and the 
carriage is also costly; but with a home nursery the cost will be 
well under 30s. per 1000 for all plants bought and nurseried, and 
if sycamore and ash seedlings were dug up in the coverts or 
shrubberies, they could be nurseried at considerably less cost. 
At 12 feet apart there would be 302 conifers per acre, and, as a 
rule, it is not easy to find room for more than 500 deciduous 
broad-leaved trees in addition to these, so that £1, 1os. should 
cover the cost of trees, while another £2 should not fall far 
short of paying for planting and cleaning. Ina plot of 8 acres 
replanted this year, where the stools were rather thin, I found 
room for 3373 conifers and 2430 deciduous broad-leaved trees, 
and I expect to get in 800 more of the latter next spring, making 
422 conifers and about the same number of deciduous broad- 
leaved trees per acre; but with regard to this I must explain 
that the need of 120 extra conifers was due to the lower part of 
the ground having been planted at 12 feet apart with Douglas 
fir, and the intervals filled up with common Japanese larch in 
place of broad-leaved trees. 
If trees of 4 feet and over are planted, the cleaning or 
weeding will be little more than thinning the stool-shoots; but 
where smaller trees are planted the mass of rubbish that comes 
up smothers the conifers in the first summer unless it be cut 
over, and this is a costly process (it has cost me as much as 20s. 
an acre), and is destructive of the seedlings from the former crop, 
which it is of importance to preserve. With bigger plants it is 
only necessary to cut the brambles and honeysuckle, and this 
can be done after Christmas, when the grass, thistles, nettles, and 
bracken have died down and the seedlings can be seen. I have 
worked out the total cost on 10 acres, including clearing up to 
the fifth year from planting, at £58, 15s., but I think this may 
be reduced with the larger trees I am now planting. 
