148 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 
is endowed by nature with a strong reproductive 
capacity in throwing up stoles or suckers from 
its roots, in which respect it is only equalled by 
the aspen. Signs of uncommonly strong repro- 
ductive power are often to be seen in spring, 
when stems that have been felled, logged, and 
dragged out of the hedgerows in winter send 
out a flush of twigs here and there in making a 
final recuperative effort. 
Both kinds of elm are easily reproducible 
by layering. Indeed, this strong reproductive 
capacity is often a curse to farmers, as the 
elm, when standing in hedgerows at the edges 
of fields and meadows, is prone to throw out 
shallow surface-roots, like the ash, from which 
suckers are apt to be sent up. Last spring, in 
Herefordshire, I saw elm root-strands interfer- 
ing so much with the work of the plough that 
they had to be hacked through, and this even at 
a distance of thirty-five yards from where the tree 
stood. It is true that in this case there was a 
deep bank and ditch on the far side of the tree, 
but this shows all the same how hedgerow timber, 
ash and elm especially, can interfere with hus- 
bandry, by impeding the plough and by robbing 
