288 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 
of foliage. At each fall the inferior stems of 
each class in the overwood should be harvested, 
leaving only the best grown to attain larger and 
more profitable dimensions. Where over-mature, 
broad crowned trees have to be cut out before 
the fall of the coppice takes place in regular 
rotation, they should of course be lopped of 
all large branches and of their crowns, so as 
to reduce to a minimum the damage done to 
the underwood when felling. 
The defects in the underwoods of most British 
copses can be much more easily and speedily 
remedied than those in the overwood. By 
sowing or dibbling in seeds of oak, ash, maple, 
sycamore, chestnut, beech, and in damp places 
also hornbeam, on prepared patches in autumn 
or spring much can be done to improve the 
density of the underwood, and to raise up seed- 
lings from which a good class of stores may 
be selected to form standards. These patches 
may be made of about four feet square, the earth 
being well hoed or delved up and thoroughly 
mixed and pulverised before sowing the hardwood 
seeds. The soil-covering should vary according 
to the size of the seed, being somewhat over an 
