210 TREATMENT OF COPPICE SYSTEMS 



Even in well-managed coppice with standards, it will 

 often be advantageous, especially on level ground, to have a 

 thick screen of evergreen shrubs at the end of any area over 

 which the pheasants are driven. This will hide the " guns " 

 from view, and the birds are not so likely to turn back ; and 

 in order to make them rise better this screen may be cut as a 

 bank, starting from ground level about 40 feet within the 

 boundary and sloping upwards, and the top of this sloping 

 screen may be made still higher by planting one or two rows 

 of trees on the very edge of the boundary. 



For such a screen, Laurel, Holly, and Rhododendron and 

 Thuya gigantea may be recommended, provided the soil be 

 suitable. These shrubs and trees, and so also Yew, Box, 

 Privet, Snowberry, and Gaultheria (G. Shallori) the latter a 

 dwarf growing shrub of rambling habits will bear a great 

 deal of shade, and are very suitable to plant as affording 

 " covert " in even-aged high forest, where the canopy is too 

 dense for ordinary coppice trees. 



The Conversion of Coppice or Coppice -with Standards 

 into High Forest. 



There are many who advocate the conversion of coppice 

 or coppice with standards into high forest, with a view to 

 obtaining greater profits. 



There is no doubt that nearly all areas under simple 

 coppice could produce a far greater income under some other 

 system ; but the system of coppice with standards should 

 not be too hastily altered for one of even-aged high forest. 



On very poor dry soils there is no doubt that an even-aged 

 forest of conifers is far more suitable, since hardwoods, and 

 especially the coppice shoots of such trees, require and extract 

 from the soil far more food nutrients than coniferous trees. 



But on stiff clay soils an attempt to convert the area 

 into an even-aged high forest, would, with timber at its 

 present price, result in a great failure. 



On such soils coppice with standards of Oak or of 

 Poplar will give better returns than any even-aged forest. 

 Coppice with Larch and Ash standards will be about as 



