SUCCESSION CROPS OF OAK. 263 



without pruning. Both these trees are extremely 

 hardy, will grow in any soil where they can be re- 

 quired for the purpose in question ; and if planted 

 twelve or fourteen years before the fall of a coppice, 

 will be of sufficient height to protect the ensuing 

 crop. When the bushes grow to a cumbersome size 

 they may be cut down, observing to do this when 

 the coppice is tall enough to afford shelter to itself; 

 but, at the same time, so long before the period at 

 which it will be fit for the axe, that the suckers 

 which arise from the roots of the birch and mountain- 

 ash may be so far advanced as to qualify them for 

 nursing the next progeny of the oak stools. 



In most old coppice grounds there is abundance 

 of materials for shelter, that have grown up natural- 

 ly among the stools, consisting (besides the kinds 

 which we have recommended when it is necessary to 

 plant for this purpose) of willow, alder, and, in some 

 cases, ash and plane-tree. The general practice is 

 to cut these down along with the coppice, so that no 

 benefit is ever derived from them as nurses. This 

 conduct is the more reprehensible as the pecuniary 

 advantage derived from it is exceedingly trifling, 

 and scarce worthy of notice. The proprietor would 

 find it far more profitable to reserve all the barren 

 wood (as in a coppice every other species besides the 



