172 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 



tion it contains. Lighter than oak, ash, or 

 maple, it equals them in durability. It can be 

 grown on all lands of a light or sandy description, 

 and can thrive, thanks to the symbiotic aid of a 

 fungus, on very poor land a characteristic it 

 shares with many other leguminous plants. But 

 its finest growth is in warm localities, free from 

 late frosts in spring and sheltered from heavy 

 winds. Where such land lies vacant in the 

 vicinity of hop-districts, robinia coppice worked 

 with a rotation of ten to fifteen years should 

 prove very remunerative. Even small thinnings 

 of coppice could yield good withes and hoops for 

 casks, hurdles, and the like. It seeds freely and 

 can be easily regenerated, and the bean-pods are 

 toothsome to cattle. 



Among hardwood shrubs Hazel (Corylus Avel- 

 lana) deserves more than a mere passing notice. 

 It often forms a very profitable coppice yielding 

 good small material for hurdle-making, bean 

 and pea sticks, crates, cask-hoops, and the like. 

 Indeed, in many parts of southern England, as 

 in portions of Gloucestershire away from the 

 districts where hop-poles are in special demand, 

 this hardy shrub is sometimes entitled to be 



