REGENERATION BY STOOL-SHOOTS. 385 



may be occasional falls of lain, in the period from Christinas to 

 April, heavy enough to provoke the appearance of shoots on stools 

 that have already been cut ; but this circumstance need not inter- 

 fere with the progress of the work (since the standing trees will 

 continue to be at rest just as if no rain had fallen), only the pro- 

 duce should be cleared out as fast as it is cut. 



Within the total period suited for coppice operations in the 

 given case, the work must of course be undertaken when labour is 

 available in sufficient abundance. 



9. Location of the coupes. 



The most fruitful sources of injury to stool-shoots arc violent 

 or very cold or hot or dry winds, frosts, excessive insolation and 

 export operations. 



Winds are to be feared chiefly on account of their violence, 

 which is increased by accompanying rain ; the rain weights the 

 shoots and to the rush of the wind is added the impetus of the 

 rain drops, and the shoots are either broken off at their insertion 

 or bent and distorted and their upward growth arrested. Very 

 hot or very cold winds are dangerous when they blow before the 

 shoots are thoroughly lignified. To secure protection against a 

 dangerous wind the coupes should be long and narrow, run at 

 right angles to it, and follow one another in the successive order 

 of their dates to meet it, so that there may always be untouched 

 forest between it and the young coppice and it may blow over the 

 shortest dimension of the coupes, and thus be unable to get down 

 as low as the new shoots. 



The best protection against frost and excessive insolation also is 

 to narrow down the coupes. An additional preventive measure is to 

 so direct the coupes that the early morning sun shall not shine upon 

 them in case of frost, and from north to south in case excessive 

 insolation is to be provided against (see pp. 253-4). It may even 

 be found necessary to keep standing forest for several years on 

 both sides of every coupe, and in that case the order of the coupes 

 will be the same as that described on p. 372, para. 3, and their 

 width may have to be reduced to 100 feet and even less. 



Narrowing the coupes will also serve to diminish the damage 

 caused by felling and export operations ; but a further measure 

 is always indispensable, and that is to make every coupe abut on 

 a road, so that the produce may never have to be carried through 

 adjoining standing forest. 



Lastly, narrow coupes will also check, to a certain extent, the 



