148 



Cultivation of Ash. 



with the action of the plough. Aloreover, in such com- 

 pletely isolated situations there is an excessive tendency to 

 ramification and coronal development. This not only 

 diminishes the total quantity of useful timber produced, but 

 also very materially affects the elasticity upon which the 

 technical value of the bole mainly depends. 



If grown upon purely economical principles, the proper 

 position of the Ash is that of a subordinate tree in woods 

 consisting of a matrix of other trees of somewhat slower 

 growth and better able to protect the soil against deteriora- 

 tion. On hill-sides it may well be planted near small water- 

 courses ; whilst on good, but rather moist, low ground it can 

 be grown remuneratively along with Oak, Elm, Sycamore, and 

 Maple, or even with Willows and Alder on land of a wet 

 description. When associated with the Oak on fresh soil, 

 where they often greatly improve the growth of the woods, 

 Ash, Sycamore, etc., should be cut out about the 60th to 70th 

 year, in order that underplanting may take place, unless 

 a sufficiency of stools, stool-shoots, and other underwood 

 obviates the usual necessity for this. 



As a standard tree in copse, the Ash finds conditions well 

 suited to its essential requirements. Here it develops a 

 much better bole than in the open, and. with a free crown 

 above the underwood, it soon thickens in girth, without inter- 

 fering too much with the coppice by overshadowing. Even 

 among the coppice it can throw out vigorous shoots, soon 

 running up into good-sized poles ; but the stools are apt to 

 become soon exhausted, when they should be replenished 

 freely. When grown on marshy land among Alder coppice, 

 it also forms a good standard, soon developing a valuable 

 bole. 



It is, perhaps, when thus grown as a standard over coppice 

 that Ash attains its best development and its highest market 

 value. Hence the remunerativeness of woodlands might be 

 appreciably increased if stout, healthy, well-grown, young Ash 

 plants were sprinkled judiciously through copse woods vvhere- 

 ever the soil seems suitable for the growth of this very 

 valuable tree. J. Nisbet. 



