AMONG THE OAKS 125 
can very easily be still further hastened, by simple 
and ingenious means, malpractices in the teak 
forests of Burma have long shown. 
Within certain limits, something can be done 
by pruning to improve the stems of oaks that 
have been allowed to run prematurely in branches. 
But the operation requires care, and is often 
attended with danger, as will be more particularly 
referred to in chapter ix. 
The decline in the price of tanning-bark has of 
course also affected very prejudicially the remune- 
rativeness of oak coppices grown specially for the 
production of this material. In the early Jacobean 
statute already referred to, the cutting of coppice 
for oak-bark was directed to take place from 
April till the last day of June, so that the young 
shoots springing from the stools should have 
time to become strong and stout before the early 
frosts came in autumn. 
The treatment of oak coppice, in places where 
it can still be grown with profit, is extremely 
simple. In Belgium and Holland, along the 
Rhine, and in the adjoining districts, coppice 
woods of oak are still grown extensively, and 
yield good returns; but in Britain the growth of 
