ANCIENT WOODS. 51 



In proof of this, I would offer the example of 

 a wood which I will suppose to be of forty years 

 standing, and to have been started with as many 

 oak plants as would suffice to insure a sufficient 

 number of timber trees, possessing ample length 

 of bole, or stem. Upon the plan of management 

 which I have suggested, there would be, at the 

 second cutting of the under wood, a certain num- 

 ber of oaks to cut out also, and from the stools 

 of these, there would start young shoots, which, 

 if properly dealt with, would, with those which 

 would spring from every subsequent cutting, fur- 

 nish a succession of timber trees ; but if no care 

 were taken in nursing them, the probability is, 

 that they would be unfit for timber, and that it 

 would therefore be necessary, occasionally, to in- 

 troduce a small number of maiden plants, even as 

 early as the expiration of the second cycle. 



