i88 ENGLISH ESTATE FORESTRY 



business are old, and that few younger men are coming on to 

 take their place. Every now and again we meet with one of 

 those cases where a woodman has saved a little capital and 

 gone into a business of this kind on his own account. But 

 such cases are too few to seriously affect the truth of the 

 statement that this class of man is dying out in company 

 with those engaged in most rural industries, and that the 

 country generally is the poorer for the want of him. Yet, 

 with the price of every commodity he sells going down, 

 while that of the labour he is bound to employ going up, it 

 is difficult to see how such men can exist with any prospect 

 of success. They work harder than ordinary labourers, and, 

 so long as their independence is maintained and they can 

 turn two shillings into half a crown, do not object to it. 

 But when it is a case of turning half a crown into two 

 shillings, as must be when prices fall too low, it would be 

 madness on the part of a man to invest his savings in any 

 such undertaking as under-wood dealing. 



It is a fact that the returns from English coppice-woods 

 depend almost entirely upon the existence of these small 

 dealers, who alone possess the knowledge and the patience to 

 turn the wood to account and to wait long periods for small 

 returns. One cannot but come to the conclusion that the 

 day of ordinary under-wood is past, and that the only sound 

 policy for the coppice owner to adopt is that of converting it 

 into ordinary plantation, or to grow large poles which may 

 meet a demand in certain districts. 



HURDLE-MAKING. 



Closely associated with the under-wood dealer is the 

 hurdle-maker, probably one of the oldest types of wood-worker 

 that still exist in England. A skilful hurdle -maker is 

 as much entitled to be called a mechanic as any skilled 

 labourer in the country, and being paid almost entirely by 

 piecework, his wages are higher than those of the average 

 labourer. Hurdles may be said to be the cream of the out- 

 turn of coppice woods, and with wood suitable for this work 

 and a ready sale for the hurdles, it only requires a really 



