COPPICING. 81 



slanting, and low down (Fig. 20). Where the stools are 

 worn out or stand too thin, the best and cheapest way of 

 improving the crop is to layer or plash when felling the coppice 

 by leaving as many small shoots as are needed, from about 1 to 

 2 in. in diameter. These are cut only half through close to 

 the ground, then bent down into a prepared groove, pegged 

 into position with a branch-crook, and covered with the turf 

 and earth taken up. It succeeds best with strongly reproductive 

 trees like Chestnut, Ash, Elm, and Lime. The shooting is 

 stimulated by making longitudinal cuts here and there through 

 the bark, or by giving the shoot a sharp twist. Plashing must 

 be done immediately after the fall of the coppice, and before 



Fig. 20. 

 gooil. bad 



the stools have flushed new shoots, else the sap naturally gets 

 drawn to these as soon as their leaves are formed. 



To supply the youngest class of stores in coppice with 

 standards, poles grown from seed or from root-suckers are 

 preferable to stool-shoots; and it is best to leave a larger 

 number in autumn than are needed, because many bend over 

 during the winter, and then in spring they can be thinned out, 

 leaving only those wanted. To provide young seedling stores 

 for the next rotation of the coppice, stout transplants can be 

 interplanted among the stools as soon as the fall takes place. 

 The usual rotation for mixed coppices is about 14 or 16 years, 

 and that for stored coppice 20 to 25 years, but simple coppice 

 of Alder is generally cut at 30 to 40 years old, when it much 

 resembles a young highwood. 



The best time for coppicing is usually the autumn, but Alders 

 on marshy ground can best be cut and removed during hard 

 winter frost, Osier-holts from January onwards, and Oak-bark 



F 



