A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



varying regularly according to age, can only be achieved in course of time. With 

 this end in view the storing of overwood should be regulated as follows : 



STORING OF OAK STANDARDS IN COPSE, THE ROTATION OF THE FALL BEING ONCE EVERY 



TWENTY YEARS 



NOTE. For ash the number of standards may be 50 per cent in excess of above for oak, 

 and mixtures of oak and ash as overwood should be calculated on these bases. 



'Considering the good quality of the soil, the above estimated amount of over- 

 shadowing towards the close of each period of rotation does not seem such as will 

 prove excessively prejudicial to the coppice underwood ; but the overwood is most to 

 be considered as likely to yield the main portion of the revenue. In addition to the 

 clearance of the coppice, each fall will every twenty years be carried out as follows : 



' The young stems selected as stores should be of seedling growth if available, 

 and in any case they should be of good straight development with a well-shaped com- 

 pact crown of foliage. At each fall the inferior stems of each class in the overwood 

 should be cleared away and utilized, leaving the best to attain the larger and more 

 remunerative dimensions. As the future prospects point to advantage in the storing 

 of ash this tree should, on the whole, receive the preference when selecting the stan- 

 dards, not only on account of a larger number being retainable per acre, but also 

 because, thus treated, it may be expected to attain its full maturity within sixty to eighty 

 years, whereas oak might often require 100 to 120 years, and the latter, involving five 

 classes of standards, seems inadvisable in dealing with the small areas now under treat- 

 ment. As a general rule it will perhaps be found advisable to remove all the ash 

 standards at the age of eighty years and only to allow oak to grow up as old trees to 

 100 years of age. 



' Where some of the older standards may have to be removed before the fall of 

 the coppice, they should be lopped of all large branches and of the crown in order to 

 reduce the amount of damage done to the underwood when felling.' 



The filling of blank spaces and the improvement of the quality of the under- 

 wood is being attempted by sowing or dibbling of seeds of oak, ash, maple, sycamore, 

 chestnut, etc., on prepared patches, and by the plashing or layering of stool-shoots of 

 ash and other hardwoods. In the former case many of the seeds are devoured by 

 mice, and in both cases the seedlings and the young shoots are eaten or gnawed by 



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