154 ELEMENTS OF STL VICULTUEE . 



if not always with a view to turning them into first 

 class standards (for there are sure to be many below 

 the level of the stool shoots), at least with the object 

 of keeping them alive and sufficiently vigorous until 

 the next cutting of the underwood. They will then 

 furnish those shoots on young stools already alluded 

 to above, when treating of the selection of standards. 

 But the usefulness of thinnings does not end here. 

 That there may be seedlings to set free in the clean- 

 ing operations, it is essential that they should be 

 there before the coppice is cut, and it is their appear- 

 ance on the ground that thinnings should endeavour 

 to effect. These two operations are therefore com- 

 plementary one of the other. Logically we ought 

 to have treated first of thinnings, but it appeared 

 preferable to take the several operations in the order 

 in which they follow each other, starting from the 

 principal cutting. 



When the rotation of the coppice does not exceed 

 thirty years, only one thinning is made ; two may be 

 made when it is as long as forty years. But before 

 the age of twenty-five years, leaving out exceptionally 

 fertile soils where the pole-stage is soon reached, 

 thinnings are very difficult in execution and conse- 

 quently attended with risks. 



To facilitate the appearance of seedlings and to 

 ensure their maintenance afterwards, the thinnings, 

 or the last thinning when two are made, ought to 

 remove all completely suppressed trees which 

 immediately overspread the ground, and to raise the 

 cover as much as possible without destroying the 

 leaf-canopy. Breaking up this canopy would be still 



