Woodland and Copse 55 



Clay (Bagley Wood, Spring Copse, Bottom Copse), and on Oxford Clay (Noke 

 Wood). Cut in 9 years rotation it gives remarkably clean straight basal shoots 

 as poles and slender rods. It was formerly much in demand for wattle hurdles, 

 etc. When neglected it fills up with Rose Briars and Brambles ; the stems 

 becoming irregular and forked are only good for faggots. The summer canopy 

 is dense, and the ground flora is restricted to spring-flowering Anemone, Scilla, 

 Ficaria, Mercurialis, etc., often very beautiful. 



(6) Oak coppice, yielding durable poles and fuel, is the most characteristic 

 type and general case. Cut normally on a lo-year rotation, but now often 

 much neglected and running to waste at 20 years, owing to reduced demand 

 or expense of conversion. 1 Large tracts of Bagley Wood remain in this 

 condition, with little change since mediaeval times. 2 The stools are left 

 knee-high, and regenerate a close tuft of laterals, several of which may make 

 good poles; the stools being spaced at a distance of 3 yds. apart. Where 

 the growth is uniform and vigorous, a dense canopy will be maintained ; and, 

 where dry, little undergrowth of any sort is left, the ground being covered 

 with persistent dead leaves. But on clearing, a rich undergrowth of herbaceous 

 types is met with in the first few years of regeneration. It is open to invasion 

 by berry-bearing forms (Rosa, Rubus, Viburnum Lantana), and commonly 

 shows admixture of other trees, cut at the same time and similarly regenerating 

 from stools (Ash, Willow, Hazel): cf. Kennington Clearings (1920-22), 

 Underwoods. 



The most general type of older cultivation is included as Coppice with 

 Standards, as an attempt at the combination of the two preceding cases, 

 which may also be regarded as limiting stages (early and late) in this type 

 of growth. A few trees may be left to grow on when the main underwood 

 is cleared, just as a few trees are often similarly left when hedges are 

 trimmed ; and these are allowed to persist over several fellings. The 

 method follows a natural process of evolution, and has been convenient in 

 the past, as the demand for underwood material and fuel was thus pro- 

 portioned to the smaller requirements of a distinctly agricultural community. 

 From the standpoint of the latter it has many advantages in utilizing waste 

 land; but otherwise the method is uneconomical. An isolated standard 

 tree completely destroys the regeneration of the underwood over a light-area 

 marked by its canopy, and the active regeneration of the underwood beyond 

 this area checks the water-supply of the standard. The canopy of the 

 whole coppice becomes discontinuous, so that both types of tree are 

 injured. Thus, where standard Oaks are left in Oak-coppice, the former 

 become stag-headed at the level of the underwood-canopy, with short bole 

 (15-20 ft.) ; light is admitted under the loosely spreading branches sufficient 

 to supply a colony of Bracken beneath the standard. The same effect is 

 observed when standard oak is left in Sycamore-coppice, and the injurious 

 effect on the crop is still more marked when residual oaks are left among 

 Larch and Scots Pine. 



Remarkable examples of this class of coppice are left at Bagley, where 

 old stools of indefinite antiquity, moss-covered and moribund, give underwood 

 in stunted growth, 10-12 ft. high only in 20 years. 3 Interesting cases of 

 regenerated 'standard' Birch among Larch and Weymouth Pine give trunks 

 1 2 in. diam. and several (5-6) from one stool. 



Where well-grown, coppice underwood of Oak, close-planted areas of 

 Larch and other conifers, or coppice under standards, gives no herbaceous 

 ground-flora at all. The residual tall-coppice, however neglected from the 

 standpoint of the forester, affords with its scanty canopy, the best collection 



1 Woods (1921), loc. cit., p. 83, foot-note. 



2 Plot (1705), p. 267, gives 7-8 years rotation ; also 20 years for Wychwood Forest. 



3 This ancient stool-coppice was probably planted in the seventeenth century, when fuel became 

 scanty. Otherwise there is nothing in the wood over 200 years old. 



