176 



No. LV. 



— Old Coppice. 



This bank of coppice is upwards of thirty years 

 old, the trees left on it have been most injudiciously 

 and erroneously selected for any thing like profitable 

 wood, being mostly beech and elm. I beg here to 

 observe as I go along, that oak, and nothing else but 

 oak, is the only profitable trees for coppice cuttings, 

 and wherever such a plan is intended, nothing else 

 should be reared. I am of opinion, however, that 

 the trees in this part of the bank, as in some other 

 parts, should be reared up as standing or ornamental 

 timber trees, and for this purpose, nearly the same 

 method as in these may be observed, with this dif- 

 ference, that it abounds with the natural growths of 

 elm and oak from the old stools, and beech from the 

 plants ; as the value of all these kinds of trees, say 

 ash, elm, and beech, wholly depend on their sizes, 

 wherever they are the predominant trees they should 

 be cultivated till their timber become valuable ; this 

 being the case here, it would by no means be advi- 

 sable to cut it over as a coppice at present, even ad- 

 mitting the supposition that it was intended to con- 

 vert it into that purpose in future. As the natural 

 stools of elm, ash, and what of oaks there are, have 

 been thinned, so that many of the shoots have died 

 altogether, and many more become stinted ; the 

 whole of their stools should be immediately gone 

 over, and thin away all the dead and dying shoots, 

 and such as are evidently hurting each other, leaving 

 not more than three of the verv healthiest and most 



