CHAPTER I. 



OUR COPSES AS THEY ARE. 



SECTION I. 



Simple CopSEa* 



The component crops of forests that are worked as Simple 

 Coppice consist chiefly of shoots from the stool and acceesorily of ^ 

 suckers and seedlingt reea 



The majority of siich forests are composed of several species 

 living side by side and associated together ia diverse proportions. 

 The climate being the same, the distribution and growth of these 

 species may vary with the mineral compositioa of the soil and above 

 all with the depth and hygroscopicity of the topsoil. The chief 

 an^ most widely distributed are, among the hardwoods, the oaks, 

 the hornbeam, beech, birch, and ash, the elms, the sweet chestnut, 

 the maples, and the service trees ; among the softwoods, the aspen, 

 the alder and the lime. 



Some of these species, like the oakff, the hornbeam, ash, and 

 sweet chestnut, the maples, the alder and the lime, possess the 

 facalty of reproducing themselves- from the stool. The stools them- 

 selves enjoy, under the coppice method of catting them, a longe- 

 vity extending over several j^centuries, and, thanks to a result 

 easily explained, they even seem under that treatment to accfuire a 

 greater longevity than seedling trees. Other species, like the 

 beech, the bircb, and the aspen, fc not grow well from the 

 stool ; but the second of these three trees reproduces itself very 

 freel}"- by seed, and the last by suckers-, wherever they have 

 once gained a real footing. The sweet chestnut is often grown as 

 copse either pure or mixed with other &pecies. It scarcely fornas 



