METHODS OF TREATMENT 103 



Coppice-with-standard woods suffer very little from frost, 

 drought, storms, insects, and fungi, and if the cover is kept 

 dense the fertility of the soil is well preserved. The only real 

 danger is from rabbits, which often completely destroy the cop- 

 pice. These must, therefore, be kept within reasonable limits. 



Woods for Timber and Game Coverts Combined. 



A modified form of coppice-with-standards will often be 

 found the best on estates where pheasant preserving is impor- 

 tant, and when the management of the woods must be such 

 that the sport is not interfered with. With a little arrange- 

 ment there is no reason why a good revenue should not be 

 obtained without friction between the gamekeeper and wood- 

 man, provided always that the owner insists on rabbits being 

 kept down. In pheasant preserves it is essential that the 

 underwood should be full and dense, and therefore the rotation 

 should be such that this effect is obtained. With long rota- 

 tions the underwood gets thin below, and therefore about 

 twenty years should be fixed upon. 



In order to provide food for the pheasants, groups of such 

 trees and shrubs as crab-apple, hawthorn, mountain-ash, elder, 

 holly, cherry, sloe, privet, snowberry, and barberry, can easily 

 be formed on ride sides, on the margins of woods, and here 

 and there in blank spaces without unduly reducing the area 

 for the growth of more valuable species. A few spruce should 

 be grown in an open manner, three or four together to provide 

 roosting places. These trees should be allowed to branch right 

 down, and clean timber is not expected from them. With 

 this modification, the crop should be formed as described 

 under coppice-with-standards. 



Another essential matter is that the woods shall be disturbed 

 as little as possible and only at intervals of a few years. This 

 can be ensured by carrying out the cuttings as indicated in the 

 following example : 



Let us assume that there are two hundred acres of woods in 



