172 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 
tion it contains. Lighter than oak, ash, or 
maple, it equals them in durability. It can be 
grown on all lands of a light or sandy description, 
and can thrive, thanks to the symbiotic aid of a 
fungus, on very poor land—a characteristic it 
shares with many other leguminous plants. But 
its finest growth is in warm localities, free from 
late frosts in spring and sheltered from heavy 
winds. Where such land lies vacant in the 
vicinity of hop-districts, robinia coppice worked 
with a rotation of ten to fifteen years should 
prove very remunerative. Even small thinnings 
of coppice could yield good withes and hoops for 
casks, hurdles, and the like. It seeds freely and 
can be easily regenerated, and the bean-pods are 
toothsome to cattle. 
Among hardwood shrubs Hazel (Corylus Avel- 
lana) deserves more than a mere passing notice. 
It often forms a very profitable coppice yielding 
good small material for hurdle-~making, bean 
and pea sticks, crates, cask-hoops, and the like. 
Indeed, in many parts of southern England, as 
in portions of Gloucestershire away from the 
districts where hop-poles are in special demand, 
this hardy shrub is sometimes entitled to be 
