ARBORICULTURE OF THE COUNTY OF KENT. 159 



then the oaks are marked, peeled in April and May, measured and 

 cleared in summer, and the woods planted up in winter, every- 

 thing in regular order. 



Many foresters object to this system of growing coppice and 

 timber together, and contend that two crops cannot be grown pro- 

 fitably at the same time on the same piece of ground, saying, 

 either have all coppice or all timber. In many cases they are 

 right, as timber can be grown better and more profitably alone ; 

 and coppice can be grown better, faster, and more profitably when 

 it does not contain a single tree. But coppice pays an annual 

 revenue of from £2 to £3, while arable land is only worth half 

 that amount, and the timber will yield about 15 s. per annum 

 besides. It is only where the oaks have been severely thinned, 

 and chestnut and ash coppice stand thick on the ground, that 

 these prices are realised. There are many districts where this 

 system has been neglected, and where the oaks stand wide apart 

 for a crop of oaks alone, the underwood being of a description 

 inferior for hop poles, viz., hazel and oak, which is natural to the 

 soil and which only realises £4 to £5 every eleven years. I am 

 certain that if all the oaks were cut, and only coppice grown, 

 the revenue would be greater than at present, but the landscape 

 effect would be greatly impaired, and the present beauty of the 

 country altered. 



If a Scotch forester were entrusted with the management of 

 woods in the south of England, it would be a gross mistake to 

 introduce the Scotch system, and vice versa ; each country must 

 be managed according to its peculiar circumstances. Planting 

 larch for hop poles is by far the most remunerative crop that can 

 be grown. In ten years larch pays an annual revenue of from 

 £5 to £6 clear profit per acre. At our sale of underwood in 1874 

 a quantity of larch plantation was sold at £72 per acre, ten years 

 old; in 1864 this enclosure was planted with chestnuts, 4 feet 

 apart each way, and then filled up to 2 feet with larch, at a cost 

 of £15 per acre, leaving a clear profit of £5, 12s. per acre per 

 annum. The soil was a poor, sandy clay, worth about 18s. per 

 acre for agricultural purposes. I am informed upon good autho- 

 rity that a quantity of larch plantation was sold several years ago 

 on a neigbouring estate at the enormous price of £100 per acre, 

 fifteen years old. What system of forestry can equal this 1 After 

 the larch is cut, the young chestnut stub grows into permanent 

 and profitable coppice. 



