158 ARBORICULTURE OP THE COUNTY OF KENT. 



to 3s. 6d. per day, and more where the soil is easy to dig. The 

 Spanish chestnut is extensively planted in Kent for hop poles ; it 

 is a first-class coppice producer, grows free, fast, and straight, and 

 is durable as hop poles. It is surprising to see the growth it 

 makes on poor soil, where it is dry and open; but on damp soil, 

 even though rich, the result is unsatisfactory, as it grows stunted 

 and sickly, and is often injured by late spring frosts. The first 

 ten years after planting it yields no return, as it takes that time 

 to get established, and to make a stub, but after the first cutting 

 it grows strong, often jjroducing three poles per stub at the second 

 cutting, and increasing in vigour at each cutting, and strong shoots, 

 5 and 6 feet high, and from six to twelve on each stub, are 

 seen the first year after it is thoroughly established. Spanish 

 chestnut, as a timber or park tree, is very ornamental, but, in a 

 financial point of view, it is comparatively worthless. I have cut 

 large numbers in the last three years, and nine out of ten were 

 so shaky they were worth little more than firewood. 



The ash gives a valuable coppice crop on damp or retentive clay 

 or loam, realising from £3 to £3, 10s. per annum. In 1874, at 

 our annual sale of underwood, a large quantity of ash coppice was 

 sold at .£33, 15 s. per acre, of ten years' growth. This is the most 

 profitable crop of underwood where the soil is too wet for chest- 

 nut ; where rabbits and hares are numerous, their depredations to 

 the ash in winter, when the ground is covered with snow, are 

 sometimes very great ; they peel off the bark round the stem, when 

 it dies, shooting again from the root only to be cut down next 

 winter ; and, where these ci-eatures abound, they soon destroy the 

 coppice. As a timber tree the ash ought to receive more atten- 

 tion than hitherto ; it is a fast grower, valuable at all ages, and 

 saleable at all sizes, and does not damage the coppice as oak does. 

 Trees of large dimensions readily sell at 2s. 6d. per foot. 



Alder and willow are planted in low soils, too wet and marshy 

 for ash. These are next in value for hop poles ; and in such soils 

 they realise a handsome return. As timber trees here they are 

 of little account, and only realise 8d. per foot. The foregoing 

 trees are all planted from 3 to 5 feet high, and 4 feet apart. 

 Smaller plants are useless, as the coppice soon smothers them. 

 When the planting is finished, the coppice is left undisturbed for 

 ten years, when it is again cut. On most estates there is about 

 an equal number of acres ready to cut annually in rotation. The 

 coppice is sold in November, cut in winter, and cleared in spring, 



