137 



here is L.IO of yearly rent per acre for land, I sup- 

 pose, not paying the proprietor lOd. ; where will 

 the very best land pay like, or nearly like this ; when 

 reserve trees are kept, and these healthy and strong 

 for two or three cuttings, and sold with the coppice, 

 it generally pays more. A skilful person should go 

 through before beginning to cut, and mark with 

 paint, or number with a wood-iron a few of the best 

 and healthiest of the oaks as standard trees ; these 

 should be selected, chiefly from the plant or seedling 

 and not from a stool, at as equal a distance as pos- 

 sible ; when cut over, the fences should all be made 

 good, and the whole blanks filled up, and the birch 

 planted up with oak, a great part of which may be 

 done by layering from the growths of the stools ; for 

 which consult my Forester's Guide on planting. This 

 is worthy of notice and immediate attention. The 

 cutting and barking should be begun immediately. 



No. XLV. 



Coppice, 



The coppice on the two farms is said to be only 

 seventeen years old, and it is truly wonderful to see 

 such fine growths of oaks as in many places here, at 

 that age ; it neither having been dressed up properly 

 when last cut for the growth, nor has it been pro- 

 perly cared for, since it has been mostly pastured, so 

 that a proper profitable crop of oak cannot now be 

 reared on it for this cutting ; the whole should be 

 cut over also this season, the birch extirpated, pro- 

 perly enclosed, the blanks planted up, and afterwards 



