356 HORTICULTURE, FORESTRY, FLORICULTURE 



most favorable to a continuance of the reproductive power of the 

 stump. 



Some species sprout more readily than others; hence the com- 

 position of the crop will change, unless attention is paid to it. In 

 the coppice, as in any other management of a natural wood crop, a 

 desirable composition must first be secured, which is done by timely 

 improvement cuttings, as described in a previous section. The best 

 trees for coppice in the northeastern States are the chestnut, various 

 oaks, hickory, ash, elm, maples, basswood, and black locust, which 

 are all good sprouters. 



When cutting is done for reproduction, the time and manner 

 are the main care. The best results are probably obtained, both 

 financially and with regard to satisfactory reproduction, when the 

 coppice is cut between the twentieth and thirtieth years. All cut- 

 ting must be done in early spring or in winter, avoiding, however, 

 days of severe frost, which is apt to sever the bark from the trunk and 

 to kill the cambium. Cutting in summer kills the stump as a rule. 

 The cut should be made slanting downward, and as smooth as possible, 

 to prevent collection of moisture on the stump and the resulting 

 decay, and as close as possible to the ground, where the stump is 

 less exposed to injuries, and the new sprouts, starting close to the 

 ground, may strike independent roots. 



Fail places or gaps should be filled by planting. This can be 

 readily done by bending to the ground some of the neighboring 

 sprouts, when 2 to 3 years old, notching, fastening them down with 

 a wooden hook or a stone, and covering them with soil a short 

 distance (4 to 6 inches) from the end. The sprout will then strike 

 root, and after a year or so may be severed from the mother stock 

 by a sharp cut. 



For the recuperation of the crop, it is desirable to maintain a 

 supply of seedling trees, which may be secured either by the natural 

 seeding of a few mother trees of the old crop which are left, or by 

 planting. This kind of management, coppice with seedling or 

 standard trees intermixed, if the latter are left regularly and well 

 distributed over the wood lot, leads to a management called "stand- 

 ard coppice." In this it is attempted to avoid the drawbacks of the 

 coppice, viz., failure to produce dimension material and running 

 out of the stocks. The former object is, however, only partially 

 accomplished, as the trees grown without sufficient sicle shading 

 are apt to produce branchy boles and hence knotty timber, besides 

 injuring the coppice by their shade. 



Plan of Management. In order to harmonize the require- 

 ments of the wood lot from a sylvi-cultural point of view, and the 

 needs of the farmer for wood supplies, the cutting must follow some 

 systematic plan. The improvement cuttings need not, in point 

 of time, have been made all over the lot before beginning the cut- 

 tings for regeneration, provided they have been made in those parts 

 which are to be regenerated. Both the cuttings may go on simul- 

 taneously, and this enables the farmer to gauge the amount of 

 cutting to his consumption. According to the amount of wood 



