SILVICULTURAL METHODS OF REPRODUCTION 63 



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A . COPPICE. 



Under this method, which is so simple that it has long been 

 practiced in southern New England, the stand is cut clear and 

 allowed to sprout up again from the stumps. Usually several 

 sprouts start from a single stump although only a few live to 

 attain tree size. In the western part of Connecticut where the 

 forests have been repeatedly cut at intervals of about twenty 

 years for the production of charcoal for the iron mines, it is 

 possible to distinguish three or four generations of stumps in 

 many wood lots, each younger generation of stumps surrounding 

 the older ones. The method is so easy of application that 

 neglect is common and a forest is very apt to deteriorate. Some 

 species continue to sprout freely much longer than others, but 

 nearly all after a certain age fail to sprout vigorously. Chestnut, 

 for example, generally sprouts well if cut at 100 years or even at 

 1 20 years, while white oak sprouts poorly after sixty years. To 

 maintain thrifty, fully-stocked coppice stands short rotations 

 are necessary. Ordinarily the rotation must be less than forty 

 years except for a species like chestnut, which sprouts well to a 

 considerable age. Therefore coppice is chiefly applicable for 

 the production of fuel, and for this purpose is generally applied 

 in Europe on a rotation of about twenty years. In this country 

 where fuel wood is as yet such a drug on the market, the method 

 has little to recommend it. To secure the best results in sprout- 

 ing the trees should be cut between September 15 and April i. 

 The stumps should be left with a clean slanting surface so that 

 water will not settle in them and cause decay. 



B. COPPICE WITH STANDARDS. 



There already exists a form of forest which may be considered 

 as a transition stage between coppice and high forest and which 

 when fashioned by the science of the forester is called a coppice 

 with standards forest. This is a forest composed largely of 

 sprouts, but with an admixture of larger trees grown from seed. 

 In the Rhine Valley of Baden this method has, perhaps, reached 



