382 RBGEN5RATI01? BY COPPICB. 



■w}\&a the area, to be exploited is subject to be flooded or to become 

 marshy. Excess of moisture in contact with the dormant buds 

 ■vYould, besides l^iliing or weakening most of them, prevent the 

 necessary amount of heat and air reaching- th^e survivors, and if 

 floods entered, the forpe of the flood waters would break off the, 

 coppice shoots. Hen.ce in such localities, the stools must neces- 

 sarily be, cut jus| above the highest level reached by tb.e water 

 and in land that becomes at all marshy, even from irrigation as 

 in Changa Manga, stubbing, out cannot be thought, of, 



SuEFACE OF SEoraosf OB THE STOOL. In Cutting the stool above 

 ground two main points should never be forgotten, (1) the edge of 

 the stool should everywhere be as near the ground as possible, so 

 that every shoot may come up in contact with the soil ; and (2) 

 water should be able to run off directly it falls and nowhere collect 

 on the stool. 



Hence, on a slope the section of the stool should run parallel with 

 the surface of the ground ; while on level ground the stool should 

 be slightly higher in the middle and slope away thence in every 

 direction to the circumference. In either case, the surface of section 

 should be even and smooth, without any hoUow that may catch 

 water. 



When the stool \s cut inside the ground, the surface of section 

 need not be very even, so long as no. water can collect over it. 

 When the stool is completely stubbed out, cutting through the top, 

 of the main roots in, the least troublesome and fatiguing manner, i.e., 

 obliquely, also gives the very best section for the purposes of the 

 cpppice. 



Tools to use. Only cutting tools should be used, viz., axes 

 and ^hatchets with broad blades, bill-hooks, pruning knives and 

 shears. Saws are entirely out of place, as they leave a ragged, 

 ■woolly surface, which absorbs water like a sponge and hastens 

 decomposition. The weight of the tool should be adapted to the 

 size of the stem to be cut ; a tool that is too heavy penetrates 

 little, but gives violent shosks, which rupture the delicate root, 

 fibres and hairs and may altogether prevent any promising re- 

 growth from coming up. The advantage of a bill-hook (Fig. 119) 

 is that it, is light and requires much less room than the axe to wield ; 

 b,]it a hatchet is almost as good and its use is more easily learnt. 

 Pruning knives, of which Fig. 120 gives an excellent pattern, 

 may be used with stems up to 1^ inches thick, and shears (Figs. 

 114 and 115) with stems up to | inch thick. It is superfluous to 



