232 Studies in Forestry [CHAP. xi. 



1840^ since which time the practical and financial advantages 

 of the measure have been duly observed and recognized. 



Copse or coppice under standards has, of course, for cen- 

 turies been cultivated both in Britain and on the Continent ; 

 but in 1840 the first case of underplanting took place solely 

 for the benefit of the standard trees, and not for financial 

 considerations mainly dealing with quick and frequent returns 

 from the coppice underwood. 



There are, however, two methods of effecting the end in 

 view; for the underwood may be formed either for soil- 

 protection only, or else with the intention of allowing it to 

 grow up into tree-forest to be ultimately felled along with the 

 present stock of standard trees, in which latter case the crop 

 really attains maturity as a mixed wood, and therefore parti- 

 cipates in the advantages offered by such over pure forests 2 . 



As on most matters, whether practical or scientific, concerned 

 with Forestry in Germany, a paper war has been waged on this 

 subject. Whereas the benefits of underplanting should have 

 been patent to all, there were not wanting some (headed by 

 Professor Borggreve) who contended that, in place of stimu- 

 lating the standards to greater increment, the practical effect of 

 the underwood was to consume a large portion of the food- 

 supplies available in the upper portion of the soil, whilst its 

 formation often necessitated a considerable outlay 3 . Owing 

 to these differences in opinion, the matter was taken up for 

 careful investigation by the experimental section of the Forest 

 branch of the Faculty of National Economy in Munich 

 University. 



The opponents of underplanting based their objections on 

 three different classes of experiments : 



i. Experiments made with standards in copse (i. e. over 

 coppice). 



1 See Monatschrift filr Forst- und Jagdwesen, 1874, p. i. 



2 See Chapter VI. On the Advantages of Mixed Woods over Ptire Forests. 



3 Forstliche Blatter, 1877, p. 20; 1883, p. 41. 



