APPLICATION OF SIMPLE COPPICE. 131 



not indigenous to France. When allowed to grow 

 to an advanced age, it becomes rotten in the centre 

 and produces a scanty outturn owing to waste. 

 When it is cut young, on the contrary, its wood is 

 sound and durable ; it is in great demand for vine 

 props, and returns large profits to the grower. It is 

 therefore important to study how to raise and work 

 a plantation of this species. 



It is first of all necessary to bear in mind that the 

 sweet chestnut absolutely refuses to grow on cal- 

 careous soils. The soil which suits it best is one 

 that is gravelly and silicious, like that which results 

 from the decomposition of granite. It succumbs to 

 late frosts on southern and western slopes, and 

 strongly objects to the presence of grass. Its growth 

 is very rapid ; and it coppices and throws up suckers 

 freely. 



In making a plantation of sweet chestnut, it is 

 advisable to begin by putting the ground under 

 agricultural crops for two or three years, giving the 

 preference to crops which require weeding, such as 

 the potato for instance. The soil is thus completely 

 freed of injurious herbage, and is now fit to receive 

 the transplants which have been previously raised in 

 a nursery. These are put out six feet apart in every 

 direction, and in the intervening space the potato 

 may be cultivated for another year or two. At the 

 end of six or eight years a preliminary cutting is 

 made, the yield of which just covers all expenses. 

 After this the plantation is worked as simple coppice 

 without reserves on a rotation of ten, twelve, or 

 fifteen years. A sufficiently good indication of the 



