102 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 



by the ancestors of the present landholders have 

 a truly pious and aesthetic value of their own, for 

 the loss of which mere money can never com- 

 pensate. The work of destruction is ever more 

 rapid than that of construction ; and a couple 

 of woodmen with axe and saw could, in a few 

 hours at most, bring down with a crash to the 

 ground the stateliest monarchs in the forest. 



The presence of vast numbers of large-crowned 

 oak trees in the copses is, however, a concrete 

 factor that must be taken into account wherever 

 the owner may desire to apply business principles 

 to the management of his woods. The oldest or 

 the most interesting trees can easily be preserved, 

 more especially if growing at the edge of the 

 woods or at the margin or crossing-points of 

 rides and green lanes. The others should be 

 gradually removed during the next two or three 

 falls of coppice, and should be replaced by stor- 

 ing fresh standards grown more in accordance 

 with the requirements of the timber market of 

 to-day. 



The oak coppices freely, and can send out 

 good healthy stool - shoots up to the age of 

 sixty, or even, under exceptionally favourable 



