50 FIRST BOOK OF FORESTRY 



stumps, after they had furnished three crops of trees, 

 would be replaced by young trees, which he would start 

 by planting from a little nursery in his garden, or by sow- 

 ing acorns and chestnuts on the newly cleared parts of 

 this woodland. In this way he could cut at least two 

 hundred dollars' worth of ties and poles each year, and 

 have more firewood than he would need on his farm. 



Looking .over the list of trees which have been used as 

 coppice, we find that it is not large and that the following 

 are the important ones : chestnut, oak, black locust, ash, 

 elm, maple, beech, birch ; and where a light wood is used 

 for paper pulp, etc., basswood, poplar, and willow may be 

 used. This list would also indicate that a good coppice 

 growth is possible in the greater portion of the eastern 

 United States ; that it fares well only in temperate and 

 warm climates, and on fairly good soil. 



In Europe, especially in France, the coppice system is 

 very common, and rather preferred in the smaller forests 

 of private owners and villagers. Generally the trees are 

 cut when fifteen to twenty-five years old. The trees of 

 oak coppice are cut in summer and the bark is peeled, 

 dried, and sold to tanners, so that these woods are raised 

 really as much for the bark as for the wood, and are 

 called tan-bark coppice. 



When the cutting in coppice woods is so regulated 

 that the trees are about thirty years old when cut, we call 

 this period of thirty years the rotation, and we say that 



