228 FELLING AND CONVERSION OF TIMBER, 



third of its diameter, or say one foot for large trees and six 

 inches for small ones. Exceptions, however, occur to this 

 rule : thus in the Harz, stumps three feet high are left, as they 

 make the best charcoal for blast-furnaces ; in other places 

 forest-rights compel the managers to leave high stumps. 

 [Mahogany and other tropical trees which have large but- 

 tresses rising from the roots are felled by erecting platforms 

 above these buttresses. Tr.] Wherever the trees are uprooted, 

 care must be taken that this is done thoroughly, so as to save 

 all rootwood over 1J inches in diameter, and the holes made 

 in the ground must be filled again carefully. 



vii. Wherever coppicing is effected, only the axe or billhook 

 and not the saw should be used, in order that smooth 

 surfaces not liable to decay may be left to the stools. 



The cut surface should be quite smooth, and the stools must 

 not be split, nor the bark torn from them ; poles and saplings 

 therefore must not be bent over by the woodcutters whilst they 

 are being cut, and every woodcutter must use sharp tools. 



In the case of all trees which reproduce by suckers (elm, 

 white alder, lime, aspen, common maple, hazel and most 

 willows) and of those which shoot out from collum-buds, pro- 

 vided the stools are not very old, the cut should be as deep 

 into the ground as possible. In this way the shoots will come 

 out close to, or even below the surface of the ground, and will 

 produce new roots for themselves, and thus new stools will be 

 formed. The beech, on the contrary, shoots high up on the 

 stool ; for beech, therefore, for alders in ground liable to 

 inundations, and for birch on poor soil, each successive felling 

 must be made slightly higher than the previous one. 



The yield of a coppice is maintained only by preserving the 

 strong old stools ; young seedling plants do not compensate for 

 the death of these. Old stools may be kept productive for long 

 periods, if they are cut somewhat higher at each felling. If 

 stools get covered with moss and knobbed, they may be left 

 up to six inches high in the case of beech and other species 

 which do not produce suckers. Oaks and hornbeam, as a rule, 

 are least sensitive to bad coppicing. In the case of pollards, 

 the cut is raised slightly at each felling. 



