170 ELEMENTS OF SYLVICULTURE. 



The advantage of having a mixed coppice is self- 

 evident, if a numerous reserve of oak has been 

 formed and a fitting proportion between the various 

 component species has been maintained by the aid 

 of cleanings. At the same time that the underwood, 

 so formed, contains a good future reserve, it is brought 

 to its maximum of production. Any one who 

 traverses such a coppice, will see healthy clumps of 

 beech and hornbeam side by side with the old oaks. 

 These clumps protect the soil, and shelter the boles 

 of the oak, which thus yield timber of the first 

 quality. 



Note. With the coppice system, may be con- 

 nected the treatment of pollards and trees whose 

 lower branches have been lopped off, leaving them 

 only a small crown. But this cannot, properly 

 speaking, form a department of sylviculture. The 

 trees treated thus are always solitary, scattered in 

 the midst of fields or grown along hedgerows. It 

 must however be observed that besides yielding 

 fodder, fuel, and wood for the manufacture of small 

 objects, the trunks of these trees may sometimes 

 serve the most important purposes. We obviously 

 do not allude to the trunks of pollards, which are 

 nearly always hollow, but with the other class of 

 trees the case is very different. It is true they are 

 full of knots ; but when the branches have been cut, 

 and at frequently repeated intervals, and the wounds 

 have healed up rapidly, it is not rare to find among 

 oak trees subjected to this treatment logs of the 

 very best quality. This explains why ship-builders 

 esteem so highly trees which have grown along the 



