The Hazel. 



the plants to form stems, the felling of the coppice, and the 

 application of the crop, all are the same as those mentioned 

 under the head of Asn ; except that, in the case of the 

 Hazel, no plants are ever left to become treesj and none are 

 ever intended for poles, 



290. Before a man plant a coppice, he ought to consider, 

 and indeed he naturally will consider, the country the cop- 

 pice is situated in, and the probable demand for the different 

 sorts of the produce of underwood. Surrounded by the 

 hop-grounds of Kent, or any other part of England where 

 there are hop-grounds, poles will be his principal object ; 

 and then the Ash, the Chesnut, and, in wet situations, the 

 Willow and the Alder, he will naturally look to as the 

 things to plant. Near to great towns. Birch he will con- 

 sider as a desirable article ; in sheep countries, amidst the 

 downs, where the folding of sheep is the great source of 

 manure and of crops of corn, rods and hurdles will be the 

 objects of his coppice; and here he will want Hazel, and 

 here, too, he will find a sort of soil on which the best Hazel 

 grows. 



291. The Hazel coppice, like others, is cut down when 

 the leaf is off, and the cutting always ought to cease by the 

 first of March, and all coppices ought to be quite cleared by 

 the twenty-fifth of that month. The age of the Hazel, when 

 it will be fit for the purposes above-mentioned on dry ground, 

 is from ten to twelve years ; but it ought not to be cut till 

 the rods are at the proper size. The whole of the rods will 

 not be at that size at the end even of twelve years ; but, if 

 the coppice stand too long, the prime rods will have become 

 too big : and thus a loss of time, as well as of crop, will have 

 been occasioned. 



