FOREST TREES BY NATURAL REPRODUCTION. 65 



should, therefore, select the stumps of vigorous and 

 younger trees for natural regeneration, and if these 

 cannot be found, it is better to plant seedlings for cop- 

 pice than to force old stumps to spend their last energy 

 in sending out some weak shoots. 



The condition of the soil, with respect to its being 

 either dry, or wet and swampy, has an important influence 

 upon the result of the operation. In the former case 

 the trees should be cut close to the ground, so as to force 

 the roots to produce shoots underground. The trees 

 growing up from such shoots are more capable of stand- 

 ing drought than shoots produced on higher stumps. 

 On swampy soil, especially if subjected to overflows, the 

 stumps should be left high enough to prevent the water 

 from overflowing them, because if cut too low, the 

 stumps will sometimes be covered with water, and will 

 perish for want of air. As that part of the old root, which 

 produced the new tree, detaches from the old root system, 

 forming a separate root with its own rootlets, there is no 

 limit to the continued reproduction, provided the dead 

 leaves, broken twigs, branches, etc., of the trees are left 

 on the ground to decay, for they are the manure espec- 

 ially adapted to trees, and when taken away — as is often 

 the case in husbandry, to serve as litter or feed — the 

 woods, being deprived of a natural element of their thrift, 

 exhaust themselves and dwindle away, while the soil of 

 those forests, where the leaves are never removed, con- 

 tinually grows richer and yields better products. 



If denuded and neglected wood-lands are to be re- 

 stocked cheaply and quickly, the first step to be taken is 

 to cut, in the manner described, every stunted tree or 

 bush, and to smooth off the stumps where the surface is 

 rugged. The best time for cutting trees, in order to 

 raise coppice-wood, is during the dormant season, that 

 is, during the latter part of the winter, or after the cold- 



