SUCCESSION CROPS OF OAK. ^57 



iiess or slowness of its growth. It would be desir- 

 able that coppice, as well as grown timber, should 

 be cut down with the saw instead of the axe ; but 

 to this, the length of time that would be required 

 in performing the work, is reckoned an insuperable 

 objection. And it must be confessed, that the use 

 of the axe is productive of less damage in cutting 

 down coppice than in felling large trees ; because 

 the comparatively few strokes that are requisite in 

 the former case have evidently a less tendency to 

 disturb the roots, than the long and vehement per- 

 cussion which is necessary in the latter. The stumps 

 should be all left of a sloping figure, in order that 

 the water may run oiF ; and the less they rise above 

 the surface of the ground so much the better. The 

 young shoots which are to form the succeeding crop 

 often spring from the highest part of the stool ; and 

 if this is many inches above the surface, several evils 

 ensue. In the first place, the shoots, having no 

 connexion with the ground, cannot put forth roots, 

 as they always do when they spring, like the suckers 

 which we sometimes see about growing trees, from 

 the part of the stool which is in immediate contact 

 with the soil. They have, therefore, a less copious 

 supply of nourishment than they would have in the 



last-mentioned circumstances ; and, consequently, 



R 



