1908.] Improvement of Woodland. 503 



plan that will admit of sufficient covert for winged game, 

 and at the same time result in a greater production of timber 

 per acre than is usually obtained under existing conditions. 



The scheme of management to be described was prepared 

 for a large area of coppice with standards that, having carried 

 a stock of rabbits for forty years, possesses no standards of 

 that age or under, except the few survivors of those that have 

 been planted and protected. The soil is stonebrash overlying 

 the Oolite, dry, of only moderate fertility, and from 4 to 8 in. 

 in depth. The species that can be profitably grown are limited, 

 as sweet chestnut and Douglas fir do not thrive, and there is 

 not sufficient depth, staple and moisture for oak, ash and 

 elm timber. Beech and larch of good quality are, however, 

 produced, and these will be favoured as standards, with 

 sycamore and ash for coppice. Little financial return is, 

 however, expected from coppice which is provided to give 

 covert, but cut on a twenty year rotation it will assist the 

 growth of the standards by cleaning the stems from side 

 branches and keeping the soil protected. 



Since these woods are understocked in the younger age 

 classes and overstocked in the others, the scheme involves 

 the gradual clearing of old trees that are deteriorating and 

 at present occupy an undue area of ground. The open spaces 

 that will result extend in many cases to upwards of one-eighth 

 of an acre, and these will be planted up for the most part 

 with larch and beech, about 4 to 5 ft. apart, in the proportion 

 of two to one, while gaps in the coppice will be mended with 

 ash and sycamore. Since, however, at the third felling there 

 will be a deficiency of old standards, some of the spaces will be 

 wholly filled with larch of the Japanese species, as giving a 

 greater return of timber at a less age than Larix Enropcea. 

 Most of the poles will have been felled in forty years, the 

 remainder being allowed to go through another rotation before 

 being cleared, when the spaces will be planted with beech and 

 larch as before. 



Eventually this will result in a wood in which the timber 

 trees will stand in age-classes in separate groups, divided by 

 patches of coppice, the former being cleaner and longer 

 stemmed than if the standards were scattered among the 

 underwood, while the management will be simplified. 



