WOODLAND WORK AND WORKING PLANS 187 



and dressing of its various components must be undertaken. 

 Long, fairly straight rods are trimmed and stacked up for 

 hurdles, short but stouter lengths are cut out and tied into 

 bundles as stakes for setting them, and the stoutest ash set 

 aside for stems, or handles of spades, brooms, and agricultural 

 tools. Long and straight rods from ash or willow go for 

 rake handles, and the larger poles are piled up for the 

 turner, bobbin, or clog-maker, etc, while alder poles must be 

 partly peeled or stripped of their rind. In the Sussex copse- 

 woods large quantities of chestnut are worked into barrel 

 hoops, and in pit-wood districts under-wood is largely used 

 for the smaller class of pitprop. Compared with ordinary 

 plantation produce, the conversion of the coppice-wood is a 

 much more complicated business for the forester to super- 

 intend, and, although he is rarely called upon to do it on 

 a large scale, the successful disposal of the wood depends 

 a great deal upon his knowledge of local demands and 

 customs. 



As a general rule, however, the purchaser of under-wood 

 is a small merchant who has risen from the rank of woodman, 

 or has inherited the business from his father. For that class 

 of man a considerable amount of capital is required to carry 

 on the work successfully. In the first place, it is necessary 

 for him to own and maintain a stout nag for delivering his 

 fagots and other articles of sale. He must employ men to 

 assist in cutting and working up his wood, and whose wages 

 he must pay probably many months before he gets any 

 considerable return from his produce. He must find cus- 

 tomers from amongst two or three different classes, and upon 

 whose stability and solvency his ultimate reward must depend. 

 Neighbouring farmers buy his hurdles, turners take his poles 

 and handle-wood, whilst cottagers are his principal customers 

 for fagots. 



We know as a fact that long credit has to be given by 

 such dealers in the case of all these classes, and although the 

 price paid per acre for the under-wood that they buy seems 

 small compared with past prices, there is little doubt that the 

 risks attending their business is much greater than was 

 formerly the case. 



Observation proves that most of the men engaged in this 



