Methods of Sylviculture 39 



Under-planting may be usefully practised about the middle of a 

 rotation of light-demanding trees, for the canopy of such trees, at 

 first rather dense, opens out and is unable to shade the ground 

 properly. After thinning, a shade-bearing species is planted where 

 space permits. 



The original crop is probably straight and clean, and the 

 thinning allows their stems to increase in diameter. The ground is 

 sheltered and its fertility maintained by the young shade-bearing 

 trees. 



The two-storied system differs from the above in that a light- 

 demanding and a shade-bearing species are planted at the same time 

 e.g., oak and beech both species growing up together. At about the 

 age of fifty years, the beeches are removed and the oak is under- 

 planted with another crop of beech. The oak and the second crop 

 of beech are then felled together. The highest quality of oak 

 timber may be produced in this manner. 



It should be remembered that the principal species is light- 

 demanding, both in under-planting and in the two-storied system ; a 

 shade-bearer being the subsidiary species. Both systems are useful 

 in the production of high-class oak, ash, larch, etc. Under-planting 

 has the advantage that the principal species cannot be suppressed in 

 the initial stages by the subsidiary trees, as sometimes happens in 

 the two-storied system. 



The method of coppice is limited to those species producing stool- 

 shoots, and this excludes conifers from the list. Extensive oak 

 coppices formerly existed for the sake of the bark. The effect of 

 coppice woods on the soil is not particularly good, the rotation being 

 short and the soil left exposed at the end of each cutting. Coppice 

 with standards is very common, the standards, of course, being light- 

 demanders. The number of them may be increased by preserving 

 a single specially straight stool-shoot on each stool. This plan, 

 however, has the disadvantage that trees produced in this manner 

 are not so tall as those grown from seed, cuttings or layers. 



The conversion of coppice into high woods may be accomplished 

 in this manner, and the success of the operation will depend on the 

 soundness of the stools. 



