8S2 REGENERATION 15 Y COI'I'ICE. 



when the area to be exploited is subject to be flooded or to become 

 marshy. Excess of moisture in contact with the dormant buds 

 would, besides killing or weakening most of them, prevent the 

 necessary amount of heat and air reaching the survivors, and if 

 floods entered, the force of the flood waters would break off the 

 coppice shoots. Hence in such localities, the stools must neces- 

 sarily be cut just above the highest level reached by the water 

 and in land that becomes at all marshy, even from irrigation as 

 in Changa Manga, stubbing out cannot be thought of. 



SURFACE OF SECTION OE THE STOOL, in cutting the stool above 

 ground two main points should never be forgotten, (1) the edge of 

 the stool should everywhere be as near the ground as possible, so 

 that every shoot may come np in contact with the soil ; and (2) 

 water should be able to run off directly it falls and nowhere collect 

 on the stool. 



Hence on a slope the section of the stool should run parallel with 

 the surface of the ground ; while on level ground the stool should 

 be slightly higher in the middle and slope away thence in every 

 direction to the circumference. In either case, the surface of section 

 should be even and smooth, without any hollow that may catch 

 water. 



When the stool is cut inside the ground, the surface of section 

 need not be very even, so long as no water can collect over it. 

 When the stool is completely stubbed out, cutting through the top 

 of the main roots in the least troublesome and fatiguing manner, i.e., 

 obliquely, also gives the very best section for the purposes of the 

 coppice. 



TOOLS TO USE. Only cutting tools should be used, vh., axes 

 and hatchets with broad blades, bill-hooks, pruning knives and 

 slieurs. Saws are entirely out of place, as they leave a ragged, 

 woolly surface, which absorbs water like a sponge and hastens 

 decomposition. The weight of the tool should be adapted to the 

 size of the stem to be cut ; a tool that is too heavy penetrates 

 little, but gives violent shocks, which rupture the delicate root 

 fibres and hairs and may altogether prevent any promising re- 

 growth from coming up. The advantage of a bill-hook (Fig. 119) 

 is that it is light and requires much less room than the axe to wield ; 

 but a hatchet is almost as good and its use is more easily learnt. 

 Pruning knives, of which Fig. 120 gives an excellent pattern, 

 may be used with stems up to H inches thick, and shears (Figs. 

 114 and 115) with steins up to f inch thick. It is superfluous to 



