136 ELEMENTS OF SYLVICULTUKE . 



spreads from below upwards, slowly it is true, but 

 surely. If such a pole is selected as a standard and 

 is allowed to live to a great age, the most useful 

 portion of the tree is thus lost, viz., that with the 

 largest girth and volume. 



But this is not always the case. When the shoot 

 stands on a little stool, like that which is derived 

 from a seedling copsed down at an age not greater 

 than that of the underwood, it englobes the stool 

 while the latter is still sound. The stool, protected 

 from weather influences, is no longer liable to rot, 

 and the shoot has all the value of a seedling.* 



It is these shoots on young stools which form the 

 finest and the most numerous standards. For it is 

 seldom that trees derived directly from seed can be 

 preserved ; owing to their slower growth they always 

 remain under cover and are hence defective in form 

 and too weak to be isolated with advantage. It is 

 only when they have been copsed down that they 

 can hold their own with the surrounding coppice 

 and shoot up vigorously. 



Since it is necessary to exclude coppice shoots 

 from the reserve, it is also necessary to be able to 

 distinguish them. This is no difficult matter when 

 they form a clump on the same stool. But individual 

 shoots also are found. When they have not sprung 

 from small stools, and it is only in this case that 

 there is advantage in recognising them, they always 

 exhibit, on the side of their insertion, the trace of the 

 bend which they describe in gradually taking a 

 vertical growth after having burst through the bark. 

 * For convenience we will term these also tellers. 



