388 REGENERATION BY COPPICE. 



tree, the roots in the ground should be wounded or broken by 

 running a strong plough through the soil or by driving picks or 

 grabbing axes into it at various points. If necessary, roots may 

 be exposed and wounded and then covered up again with good 

 soft soil. As the development of suckers requires a considerable 

 amount of root- tie ration, very often, especially in heavily grazed 

 forest, it will be found that it is the hardness of the soil at the 

 surface that interferes with successful reproduction ; in that case, 

 breaking up this superficial crust may be the only measure re- 

 quired. 



6. Season for cutting. 



Here too the best time for felling the trees is the season of 

 vegetative repose. But, contrary to what we have seen obtains 

 in regard to exploitation for stool-shoots, the abundance and 

 vigour of the sucker reproduction will be greater, the earlier in 

 that season the felling takes place, for the longer the interval of 

 time between the removal of the aerial portion of a tree and the 

 actual springing up of the suckers is, the greater will be the number 

 of new adventitious buds able to form on the roots. And the most 

 favourable moment for felling will generally occur immediately 

 after the cessation of vegetative activity, while the soil is still 

 warm and moist enough for the necessary chemical changes, 

 resulting in the formation of new buds, to take place. Never- 

 theless, if the season of repose is very long and there is reason 

 to fear that severe protracted drought will kill many of the 

 roots, the felling must be delayed until near the end of the 

 season. 



7. The location of the coupes and the presence of stores. 



The remarks made under these two heads in the preceding 

 Section hold good here without any modification. 



SECTION III. 

 Comparative value of stool-shoots and root-suckers. 



In the first place, suckers may be produced from almost any point 

 of the area within which the roots of the parent tree have spread ; 

 whereas stool-shoots, it is superfluous to say, cannot, at the outside, 

 stand more than 3-4 feet apart from each other. Hence (1) almost 

 every sucker produced has sufficient room to grow up into a pole, 

 if not into a formed tree, whereas on the very largest stool, even if 

 it has been cut inside the ground, hardly half a dozen shoots can 



