STAG-HEADEDNESS. 683 



2. Treatment. 



a. Preventive. 



i. Maintain the soil-covering of dead leaves, moss, etc., in 

 order that the soil may not lose its moisture. 



ii. Keep up a dense leaf-canopy, especially where the soil 

 is shallow and liable to dry up, and where the subjacent rock 

 is of a porous nature (chalk, gravel, etc.). 



iii. Underplant all high forests of lightdemanders with 

 a shadebearer, such as beech or silver-fir, as soon as grass 

 or other herbage appears on the soil, and fill up with shade- 

 bearers any gaps which may have occurred in a forest owing 

 to windfall, or other injurious causes. Underplanting oak 

 forest with spruce may cause stag-headedness, on account of 

 the quantity of moisture the spruce absorbs. 



iv. Do not plant spruce, alder, ash or pedunculate oak in 

 dry localities. The sessile oak will thrive on well -drained 

 hillsides, where it is hopeless to plant the pedunculate oak. 



v. Avoid draining, unless it is absolutely necessary. 



vi. High forest is more suitable than coppice-with-standards 

 in dry localities and those with superficial soil or above a 

 porous rock. 



vii. When epicormic branches appear on oaks and other 

 standards in coppice-with-standards, or on standards left after 

 regeneration in high forest, they should be pruned off before 

 the next spring. It may be necessary to repeat the operation, 

 but after two seasons in the open the bark of the standards 

 becomes hardened, and the epicormic branches do not generally 

 reappear. In any case the stems of the standards will be 

 gradually sheltered again by the rising underwood, which will 

 effectually kill any epicormic branches still on the tree. 



The appearance of epicormic branches on oak trees growing 

 in a dense wood is a sign of disease, and such trees should be 

 gradually removed in the fellings, as they will certainly become 

 stag-headed. 



b. Remedial. 



As a rule no remedy can be adopted when forest trees become 

 badly stag-headed, the only measure to be followed being to 

 fell them and utilise their timber before it becomes further 



