130 ELEMENTS OF SYLVICULTUEE. 



shoots out of a clump and in leaving the weaker 

 ones. The wood-cutter returns to the same place 

 every eight or ten years, and if the poles are cut at 

 the age of twenty-four or thirty years (i.e. if the 

 rotation is of twenty-four or thirty years), the 

 clumps are composed of shoots of three different 

 ages. Here we have the selection method applied 

 to coppice. The coppices treated thus are usually 

 simple without any reserves. They are little known, 

 and have perhaps not been sufficiently studied. 

 Nevertheless it does not appear to us that "furetage" 

 should be generally adopted, because in the first 

 place, it seems preferable to grow the beech as high 

 forest, and, for private proprietors who possess 

 forests of this tree, as coppice with standards. If 

 the standards are cut early enough they will not 

 injure the underwood they overtop, especially if the 

 rotation is sufficiently long, and they will be able 

 to shed seed, by which the growing stock will be 

 kept full. Moreover, although "furetage " has 

 hitherto preserved beech coppices in a more or less 

 satisfactory condition, it presents many disadvan- 

 tages. Thus it is exceedingly difficult to cut a 

 certain number of the shoots in a clump without 

 injuring the rest ; in any case the labour required 

 is more costly. Besides this, cutting up the wood 

 is not so easy when the shoots left standing are to 

 be preserved from injury, and it is necessary either 

 to remove the former on men's backs or allow carts 

 to come in among the standing crop, a circum- 

 stance which is necessarily productive of damage. 

 THE SWEET CHESTNUT. The sweet chestnut is 



