3i8 BRITISH FOREST TREES 



than poplars and aspen. For pure forests they are far too 

 light-loving and broken in canopy, whilst, as subordinates in 

 mixed woods, they are of too rapid growth, and too apt to 

 interfere seriously with the ultimate development of the 

 ruling species. As standards in copse they find the conditions 

 naturally suited to their normal requirements, and can yield 

 in comparatively short periods of rotation (usually thirty to 

 forty but not exceeding sixty to eighty years) good monetary 

 returns where the market for the soft timber is assured, 

 though in general the nobler light-loving species in most 

 common demand are more likely to meet the average require- 

 ments of the timber trade. As coppice they also do well in 

 small woods on old water-channels, drained hollows, or the 

 like, where the soil is not quite suited for willow-cultivation ; but 

 on the whole they are less suited to this method of treatment 

 than for the production of large timber trees. The silver 

 and grey poplars are best transplanted as seedlings, but black 

 and Lombardy poplars are generally put into nursery-beds as 

 eighteen to twenty-four inch slips of two to four-year-old 

 growth without lopping off the top, for otherwise the growth 

 in height is affected later on ; poles of fourteen to fifteen 

 feet and two and a half to three inches in diameter do well 

 when put in deeply. Spring is the best time for putting out 

 poplars, and, until required, slips or cuttings can be kept 

 fresh by being placed with the lower end in water or in any 

 trench covered with earth. When nursery transplants are 

 desired, the slips or cuttings are put out in beds about two 

 feet apart, so that in three to four years they attain a height 

 of six to seven feet. When planting out such material, it is 

 well to cut back the youngest leading-shoot so that only 

 three to six buds remain, and to avoid trimming the side 

 branches until later on. When the fungal disease Caeoma 

 pinitorquum is rife in woods of Scots Pine, aspen should be cut 

 out to prevent change of generation with Melampsora. 



