i;6 THE NEW FORESTRY. 



SECTION II. COPPICE. 



Since the first edition of this book was written I have 

 inspected many crops of coppice in the southern and western 

 counties, and if the reports of owners are anywhere near the 

 mark, coppice is now one of the most unprofitable wood crops 

 that can be grown. The demand has subsided, but the 

 decline in value has been mainly due to over-production. 

 Twenty shillings per acre rent induced owners, at one time, 

 to grow more coppice than timber, and the price has gone 

 down about 70 per cent. unless it be of first-class stuff. 

 Where ash, oak, birch, Spanish chestnut, and alder have 

 been mixed with the hazel, which usually constituted the 

 main crop, the plan of converting the coppice into timber has 

 been successfully adopted in some places. This is done 

 by gradually doing away with the underwood and leaving the 

 strongest shoots of the species named to grow into trees. In 

 such cases the main point is to thin the shoots on the stools 

 early, leaving plenty, and taking care to leave those suckers 

 or shoots that spring from near the soil, as these make inde- 

 pendent roots and always produce the soundest trees. 



Where the crop consists of hazel exclusively nothing can 

 be done, and on some estates owners would be glad to get 

 rid of the stools if that were practicable at a reasonable 

 expense. I have noted a fact bearing on this head which is 

 worth mentioning. Rabbits are very fond of hazel under- 

 wood when young, and, if allowed, they will attack and 

 completely destroy the young shoots after a clear cut, and 

 in two or three years the stools will rot and die out. I have 

 seen acres of hazel stools quite killed in that way, and where 

 stools that had produced a dense crop before could be kicked 

 out by the foot. Ash and other species succumb in the same 

 way, but not as soon as the hazel, which does not seem to 

 long survive the 'close cropping of the young shoots. 



The general management of coppice consists in growing 

 the most useful species, and such as grow up quickly, like the 

 ash, sweet chestnut, larch, and hazel, and in regulating the 

 crop at an early stage so as to produce useful small poles or 

 rails as soon as possible. The area devoted to coppice 

 should be divided into sections, which may be cut in succes- 

 sion, so that when the last section is cut the first may be 

 ready to go down again. Where coppice is specially planted 

 for stakes and very small poles, there are no species equal 

 to the larch, ash, and Spanish chestnut, and these should 

 be sown or planted thickly. 



