114 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 
their financial maturity, at about a hundred and 
forty to a hundred and sixty years, when the 
stems should be quite as large as would be those 
of two hundred years of age if grown in regular 
highwoods as a pure crop of oak. 
The regeneration of such woods and groups as 
above described can easily be accomplished if the 
soil has been properly protected. If the oak has 
been grown along with beech, however, it may 
often be best to regenerate the latter naturally in 
the manner to be described in the next chapter, 
while the oaks for that new crop can be intro- 
duced wherever desired by means: of planting 
stout healthy transplants. Otherwise the specific 
method of regeneration must of course depend on 
the nature of the underwood. If that be thick 
and likely to spring vigorously from the stool 
when cleared from the ground, nothing will re- 
main but to put out stout oak plants strong 
enough to hold their own, with assistance in the 
way of weeding and thinning, against the coppice. 
But if the woods have been thick enough to be 
nearly pure oak at last, beneath the canopy of 
which the underwood is not of very vigorous 
growth, this can be cleared away and utilised 
