158 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 



be grown as standards in copsewoods. Indeed, 

 owing to the much larger number of trees that 

 can thus be retained as standards without unduly 

 overshadowing the coppice, ash and larch will in 

 many cases prove more profitable than oak in 

 this respect ; and such is certainly one of the best 

 methods of growing ash. 



On marshy lands of the better class, where 

 oak can be grown with advantage, a sprinkling 

 of ash often improves the growth of the crops ; 

 and patches of ash in the better parts of the alder 

 groves can be made to add considerably to the 

 returns, such patches being underplanted during 

 the later stages of their development. At the 

 present moment the cultivation of ash on soils 

 suitable for its growth seems a very attractively- 

 remunerative sort of investment, while the facts 

 that it seeds freely, can be propagated so easily, 

 and can be grown to the best advantage in 

 mixed crops along with beech, oak, maples, &c., 

 make it comparatively easy to raise and handle 

 as part of a woodland crop. 



All of the three kinds of maple common in 

 Britain, the maple or Norway maple {Acer pla- 

 tanoides\ the sycamore, great maple, or Scots 



