RENEWAL. 79 



it is best to prune about 3 ft. from the stem ; otherwise pruning 

 should be done close to the stem, and first of all the lower 

 side of the branch should be cut or sawn into, to prevent 

 tearing of the bark when the pruned branch is falling off. 

 Pruning should be done as early in autumn or winter as may 

 be convenient (October best). Pruning-tools consist of tree- 

 saws, tree-chisels, and knives with special lever appliances 

 (parrot's-beak, &c.). 



The Renewal of Woodlands. In Britain the opinion has 

 often been expressed that there should be a change of tree when 

 mature timber-crops are harvested. In natural woods crop 

 succeeds crop ; and when changes take place, they can easily be 

 accounted for by the relation of the different species towards 

 light and shade, frost, &c., or by the power of the seeds of 

 certain light- winged species to lie dormant (like Birch) for many 

 years, and at length germinate whenever they have favourable 

 supplies of light. The researches of sylvicultural chemists 

 prove that there is no danger of any highwood crop, grown in 

 close canopy, exhausting or failing to protect the soil against 

 sun and wind, so long as the dead foliage is left to form humus. 

 Properly managed evergreen Conifer crops leave the land richer 

 in plant-food than when originally planted with trees ; and soil 

 temporarily exhausted by badly managed broad-leaved crops may 

 be recuperated by a c^tch-crop of evergreen Conifers, and. again 

 become suitable for deciduous trees. Mismanagement or disease 

 may sometimes necessitate a change of crop ; but this has 

 nothing to do with the demand of trees for one particular kind 

 of food in greater quantity than a properly protected soil cab 

 yield. In Strathspey pine-woods, crop has succeeded crop from 

 time immemorial, yet they produce good, sound timber. 



Methods of renewal vary according to the form of the crop. 

 Simple coppices are cut back to the stool with a ^clean slanting 

 stroke as close to the ground as possible, and reproduce them- 

 selves by throwing out stool-shoots or root-suckers. In stored 



