IIG 
Undcricood : 
chestnut and ash alternately. In swampy places I plant alder 
for powder merchants. Willow is rarely planted, as there is 
no basket-making in this neighbourhood. The willow is 
allowed to grow eight or nine years, and is chiefly converted 
tor powderwood. Underwood rejoices in sunshine, and suffers 
in cold sunless seasons. In 1878 I measured the following 
"first shoot" in various plantations: chestnut, 7 feet to 8 feet 
6 inches ; ash, 8 feet to 10 feet ; birch, 7 feet to 8 feet 7 inches ; 
alder, 7 feet 2 inches ; hazel, 6 feet 3 inches ; willow, 8 feet 
6 inches to 11 feet. In the wet season of 18G0, and the still 
worse season of 1879, the first shoot rarely reached 24 inches, 
and in much woodland not 12 inches. Late spring frosts are 
very injurious to chestnut shoots. A frost in May occasionally 
destroys a summer's growth. Landowners who prefer to cut 
their own underwood may wish to know the cost of labour for 
converting the stuff, and the value of the manufactured article. 
I therefore give particulars of the chief productions. The year 
1877 is selected as being a fair average for labour and value 
of goods. In Sussex the best chestnut and ash are worked up 
for hoops ; the rough poles are sold to the hop-growers. 
Hoop chips were formerly used for thatching farm-buildings 
and cottages. The old skilled thatchers have died off, and 
young men are not found who can execute the work equally 
well, so the picturesque cottage thatched with chips is replaced 
by a roof covered with tiles or slates, and the chips are sold for 
firing. 
Prices paid for Coppice-cutting in 1877. 
s. d. 
Cutting hoops, at per load of 30 ) g „ j^,^^ 
bundles j '- 
Hop-poles 13 per hundred, all lengths. 
Short fagots 3 (3 „ 
Clean bavins 2 3 „ 
Bush bavins 2 3 „ 
Broom-sticks 0 4 „ 
Bean-sticks 0 4 „ 
Broom-bands 0 4 „ 
Hooked stakes 0 4 „ 
WalkinfT-sticks 0 8 „ 
Spar timber 0 3 „ 
Pea-sticks 0 Of per bundle. 
Withes 0 2j per hundred. 
Cutting and strijjping alder and willow for powderwood, lOs. per load 
piled, 24 feet long, in 3 feet lengths 2 feet high. 
Making wattled sheep-hurdles in the Weald, of hazel, 3s. 2d. per dozen. 
