252! CULTURE AND MANAGEMENT OF OAK. 



where the wood and the bark meet, as the water 

 getting between them is particularly pernicious. 

 Some foresters (and their practice is worthy of being 

 imitated) give the stools the following dressing, as 

 it is technically termed : They take an adze, and 

 pare off the edge of the stool in a sloping direction, 

 all round, and as close as possible to the ground. 

 This gives the stool a rounded figure, and thereby 

 prevents water from lodging on its top. In work- 

 ing with the adze, the stroke must be given up- 

 wards, and none but persons that are expert at hand- 

 ling that tool ought to be employed, otherwise the 

 stools will be much disfigured, and the process so 

 imperfectly performed as to do harm instead of 

 good. If, in addition to such a dressing, paint be 

 likewise applied, injury from moisture will be still 

 more effectually prevented. 



The stools will require no farther attention for 

 two or three years, by which time they will have 

 sent forth a number of shoots, some of which will be 

 a considerable length. These must now be thinned 

 out, leaving from four to six of the best, according 

 to the strength of the stool. In order to perform 

 this work effectually, it will be necessary to prepare 

 a chisel with a pretty strong wooden handle or haft, 

 about two feet long, and also a wooden mallet 



