SYLVICULTURE. 



D. Improvement cuttings: Improvement cuttings are necessary 

 in culled coppice forest emerging directly from primeval hardwood 

 iorest heavily cut or heavily fired. Such forest is invariably on- 

 cumbered with bushy and worthless standards (if the standarls 

 have a value, the forest belongs to the form of coppice under stand- 

 ards described in Par. LXXIII-Par LXXVIII) interfering with the 

 development of the shoots; or with undesirable species left by the 

 logger. The mob frequently prevails over the aristocrats. 



The first final cut at the end of the first coppice rotation usually 

 answers the purpose of an improvement cutting. 



E. Pruning: Pruning is required to prevent coppice of Catalpa, 

 Locust and Ash from forming forks or heavy branches. Naturally, 

 pruning is expensive and dangerous at the same time since live 

 branches are removed. The danger is particularly great where the 

 rotations are long, the pruned stump shoots being left for decades 

 of years after pruning. 



In the pollarding form, pruning or rather lopping obviously 

 comprises the harvest of the crop. 



Paragraph LXX. Key to the forms of coppice forest. 



Although coppicing is called a type of natural regeneration, it 

 is an absolutely unnatural measure never adopted by primeval 

 nature. Primeval forms of coppice forest proper do not exist. 



Species propagating their kind, at least partially, by root- 

 suckers frequently form rootsucker forests closely resembling cop- 

 pice, forests proper. 



Chestnuts, Locusts and many other hardwoods broken down by 

 storm may form natural sprouts as well from the stumps. Still, 

 these cases are probably so scattering as not to deserve the name of 

 "form of primeval coppice forest." 



Thus there remain only two large gfoups of coppice forests, 

 namely "Culled Coppice Forests" and "Cultured Coppice Forests." 

 In both cases we have to deal only with the large-area form or com- 

 parfment form of coppice. 



Woods seemingly consisting of uneven-aged coppice shoots, 

 mixed in groups or individually, are dealt with as " Forms of cop- 

 pice-under-standards" (Par. LXXIII-Par. LXXVIII), unless the 

 standards are worthless and promise to remain worthless. 



A. Culled forms of coppice: 



These forms emerge either directly from omnivendible primeval 

 forms, or else havs passed through the intermediate stage of "culled 

 coppice under standards." 



158 



