64 JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



so expensive to start that there will always be many who keep 

 to the old system of two, three, or four poles to a hill, because 

 they cannot afford the initial expense of the new system. 



It follows, then, that "when hops sell well, and sell freely early 

 in the season, that the woods make good prices. At the same 

 time it is obvious that the small sum of £10 per acre would only 

 pay rates and taxes, and were it not that much woodland is only 

 kept up for sporting purposes, this return would not encourage a 

 landowner to lay out any money on filling-up and replanting, 

 though I am confident that if owners would insist on the rabbits 

 being kept down they could get a far better return from their 

 woods than they do. 



Old Chestnut woods that are thin, and where young plants 

 of the same nature cannot establish themselves, could be filled 

 up with the Plum-leaved Willow, which comes in for faggots, and 

 tends, by occupying vacant spaces, to make the Chestnut straighter 

 and more useful for the wheelwright and sheep-gate maker. 

 Crooked butts are of no value, and for this reason Ash drawn up 

 among Chestnut produces the greatest number of useful hop- 

 poles. And as the Hazel is valuable for hoop-wood, it should be 

 planted for that purpose. 



A word as to the formation of woods. Ash and Chestnut 

 should be at least 6 feet from plant to plant, and to raise them 

 a Larch Fir should be planted between each stool to act as 

 nurses. These come in to cut before the main wood, and can 

 generally be sold to the florists, or as poles for young hops, at a 

 remunerative price. I would urge landowners to endeavour to 

 keep their young woods free from coarse weeds by a regular 

 use of the horse-hoe ; and, although the labour is expensive, a 

 wood gets on so much faster under this treatment, that I am sure 

 it would pay, as where an open young wood once becomes covered 

 with weeds and coarse grasses its growth is impeded for years. 

 If the Larch nurses were ready for cutting at ten years old, it 

 would be best to grub them out roots and all, and then cut the 

 Chestnut and Ash stools to the ground, when, if kept clean, the 

 next crop of underwood would only be about ten years before it 

 was again ready to cut. Thousands of acres of fresh woods are 

 ruined by the want of systematic care and attention, and, what 

 with the rabbits and weeds, become almost useless for under- 

 wood. 



