SILVICULTURAL SYSTEMS. 



19 



apt to be unsound, because the old stumps decay and 

 infect the sprouts which spring- from them. 



SIMPLE COPPICE. 



It often happens, as in Penns3^1vaniaor New Jersey, 

 that a fire sweeps over the second-growth hardwood 

 lands and kills all the 3^oung trees down to the ground; 

 but the roots remain alive, and from them spring- 

 3^oung- sprouts about the bases of the burned trunks. 

 After several years a 

 second fire may fol- 

 low and kill back the 

 sprouts again, and 

 other fires may con- 

 tinue at intervals to 

 burn over the land, 

 each followed b}^ a 

 new crop of sprouts. 

 When a farmer does 

 with the ax what is 

 often done ^b}^ fire he 

 is using- the system 

 of Simple Coppice. 

 Let us suppose a farmer has a woodlot covered prin- 

 cipally with chestnut sprouts which he wants to man- 

 age for the steady production of railroad ties. Ke 

 knows that chestnut sprouts are usually large enough 

 for ties at the age of 35 years. In order to insure a 

 stead}^ yield of trees fit for ties, he divides the whole 

 woodlot into thirty-five parts of equal productive 

 capacity, and cuts one part clean every jesiv. All the 

 new sprouts that spring up on the part cut in any year 



Fig. 10. — Ideal sketch map of a sprout forest 

 managed under the system of Simple Cop- 

 pice. 



