SILVICULTURAL SYSTEMS. 



19 



apt to be unsound, because the old stumps decay and 

 infect the sprouts which spring from them. 



SIMPLE COPPICE. 



It often happens, as in Pennsylvania or New Jersey, 

 that a fire sweeps over the second-growth hardwood 

 lands and kills all the young trees down to the ground; 

 but the roots remain alive, and from them spring 

 young sprouts about the bases of the burned trunks. 

 After several years a 

 second fire may fol- 

 low and kill back the 

 sprouts again, and 

 other fires may con- 

 tinue at intervals to 

 burn over the land, 

 each followed by a 

 new crop of sprouts. 

 When a farmer does 

 with the ax what is 

 often done b}^ fire he 

 is using the system 

 of Simple Coppice. 



FIG. 10. Ideal sketch map of a sprout forest 

 managed under the system of Simple Cop- 

 pice. 



Let us suppose a farmer has a woodlot covered prin- 

 cipally with chestnut sprouts which he wants to man- 

 age for the steady production of railroad ties. He 

 knows that chestnut sprouts are usually large enough 

 for ties at the age of 35 years. In order to insure a 

 steady yield of trees fit for ties, he divides the whole 

 woodlot into thirty-five parts of equal productive 

 capacity, and cuts one part clean every year. All the 

 new sprouts that spring up on the part cut in any year 



