sideration for maintaining these is, “ that small 
gains and quicker returns make the dealer rich, 
while long credit ruins him ;” and another, of far 
higher power, though necessarily of limited local 
range, is the vicinity of a constant and good 
market for coppice produce. But coppices for 
profit in most parts of England and generally in 
Scotland, are the underwoods of thin groves; or 
rather what are commonly called coppices, are 
mixed woods of various sizes and conditions of 
plants, from the shrub, the sapling, and the shoot- 
ing stool to the massive and lofty full-grown tree. 
The most common articles obtained or manufac- 
tured from a thorough coppice are ash-hoops, 
hop-poles, gate-hurdles, and sheep-hurdles ; but 
those obtained or manufactured from a mixed 
coppice have an exceedingly wide range, and 
comprise, among other matters, laths, baskets, 
hedge-stakes, coal-pit props, agricultural imple- 
ments, and many kinds of carpentry-wood and 
building timber. A very valuable produce of 
oak coppices is bark for the use of tanners. See 
the articles Barxine and Oak. The refuse cut- 
tings of all kinds of coppices, or such as cannot 
be profitably used for any better purpose, are 
either burnt for charcoal, made into faggots for 
fuel, or sold to the manufacturers of pyroligne- 
ous acid. 
Many persons pay little attention to their cop- 
pices except at the times of cutting; but were 
they to bestow on them proper care and manage- 
ment, they might, in a few years, double their 
value. Coppices require, more than even arable 
When cattle 
break into a field of wheat, they injure only the 
| crop of one year; but when they break into a 
| coppice, and find opportunity to bite and mangle 
the young shoots of its plants, they inflict damage 
equal to the destruction of three years’ crops of 
some kinds, and from four to ten years’ crops of 
others. The bite of cattle, in consequence of the 
irregularity of its incisions, so lacerates and 
bruises young ligneous plants, as to do them far 
more harm than would be done by mere cutting 
or fracture. Almost any shoot of the first year, 
which is bitten by cattle, loses a growth of three 
years; most shoots of from four to six years, are 
liable, not only to be deprived of the succulent 
buds upon their top, but to have their whole 
substance trodden down and disrupted; and oak 
woods, of all ages, when cropped or browsed upon 
by cattle, will never afterwards thrive till they 
are cut over at the ground. Sheep also inflict 
great damage by rubbing against the trees. 
Horses, unless much pressed with hunger, are 
not nearly so mischievous as cattle. Hogs inflict 
comparatively little injury; and as they feed and 
fatten well upon acorns, they far more than com- 
pensate any small damage they may do, by the 
acquisition of superior value in their own car- 
cases. See the articles Acorn, Bacon, and Hoa, 
A common form of fence round coppices in some 
districts is a mound; but this is very liable to be 
a 
fields, to be kept well enclosed. 
COPPICK. 
863 
scraped down and eventually broken through by 
cattle, and requires to be fortified either with a 
facing of stone, or with a tangled mass of black-. 
thorn and other brushwood. 
Other causes of injury to coppices and of the 
retardation of their growth are exposure to vio- 
lent south-west winds and the chilling and sick- 
ening influence of wet soil; and these may easily 
be remedied,—the former by sheltering, and the 
latter by draining. Sheltering may be effected 
by a belt of plantation, either of Scotch pine, 
Spruce fir, or any other species of hardy forest- 
tree best suited to the soil. Drainage, especially 
for the oak and other species which dislike wet- 
ness of situation, has been found as profitable in 
coppices as in arableland; and, in the wet heavy 
woodland counties in particular, it makes ample 
compensation for all the cost and toil which it 
occasions, But in woods, it must be effected by 
open cuts; for the roots of the trees would soon 
disturb and stop up covered drains. If sound 
enclosure, shelter, and draining were afforded to 
ill-managed coppices, the plants would instantly 
begin to enjoy such accelerated growth, that they 
would double their produce, or afford two ample 
cuttings in the cycle of years formerly required 
for one. When coppice land cannot or will not 
be drained, its growth should be restricted to | 
aquatics,—particularly to willows and alder. 
The proper time or interval for the periodical 
cutting of coppices depends on the species of the 
wood, the comparative rapidity of its growth, 
and the uses to which it is to be applied ; and it 
varies in practice from 8 to 30 years. “In fa- 
voured situations,’ said Sir John Sinclair in 
1817, “a growth of 12 years is considered to be 
sufficient; but, in many instances, underwood 
cannot, by the best management, be made worth 
more than £8 per acre at 16 years’ growth. 
Twelve small oaks, however, per acre, worth 20 
shillings each, may be cut regularly at the same 
time, which renders the total produce £20 per 
acre every 16 years. The great wood proprietors 
in Scotland, generally cut their oak coppices from 
20 to 24 years, and it is sometimes extended to 
30 years. The principal object in that country 
is the bark, which is considered to arrive at its 
greatest perfection, at the age of between 20 and 
30 years.” A good coppice, in the southern and 
central counties of England, may be cut in every 
eighth or ninth year; and, according to the near- 
ness of the market and the goodness of the wood, 
will then yield a clear receipt of from £6 to £16 
per acre. 
The thinning and pruning of coppices is a sub- 
ject of more looseness of idea and diversity of 
practice than any other part of the treatment ; 
and yet, for all the purposes of economy, requires 
to be well understood. All young or recently cut 
oak trees grow with great vigour, and make an- 
nually two shoots,—one in the month of June, 
and the other in the month of August; and the 
latter of these shoots, called in Scotland the Lam- 
