PROFITABLE TIMBER TREES 71 



rate of growth are best. Stiff clays and pure peat are not 

 suitable for this tree, neither are thin, dry, gravelly, chalky, 

 or rocky soils. But on deep sands and loams, and not too 

 stiff clays in which the trees can get sufficient moisture to 

 carry on a moderate growth, ash timber can be grown of 

 superior toughness to that produced on better and moister 

 ground, although the latter may pay the planter better, and 

 give a larger yield per acre in a given time. 



The sylvicultural system best adapted for ash depends a 

 good deal upon the class of timber wanted. In olden days 

 poles and small timber seem to have been in greater demand 

 than trees of large dimensions, and coppice or standards in 

 coppice appear to have been the favourite way of growing it. 

 Evelyn says : " But if you would make a considerable wood of 

 them at once, dig or plow a parcel of ground as you would 

 prepare it for corn, and with the corn, especially oats (or 

 what other grain you think fittest), sow also a good store of 

 keys, some crab kernels, etc., amongst them. Take off your 

 crop of corn or seed in its season, and the next year following 

 it will be covered with young ashes, which will be fit either 

 to stand (which I prefer), or be transplanted for divers years 

 after." The ash has always been a favourite tree for cop- 

 picing, and turners use large quantities of the boles for various 

 purposes. Grown on a rotation of about fifteen years and 

 with little or no big timber over it, it still pays well where 

 these industries are carried on, and as much as 10 or 12 

 per acre can be obtained for a piece of good wood kept clear 

 of rabbits for the first year or two after cutting. But the 

 most profitable system, where big timber is required, is that of 

 planting it pure, or mixed with oak or larch, according as 

 the soil is adapted for the former or the demand exists for 

 the latter. In high forest the trees can be grown cleaner 

 and taller than as standards in coppice, and although 

 individual trees may not put on timber quite so rapidly, yet 

 the quantity produced per acre will be much greater and the 

 ground better utilised, while the timber will be of superior 

 quality for most purposes. 



In growing ash in high forest, however, more care is 

 necessary to prevent overcrowding than with any tree we 

 know of. For the first twenty years no crop will carry more 



