COPPICE AND UNDERWOOD: THE MANAGEMENT OF COPPICE WOOD
Although coppice wood has deteriorated considerably in value during
late years, yet in certain districts and on suitable soils its
cultivation is still to be recommended. Unfortunately, however, the
uses to which coppice wood are in the main applied are much localized,
and this, with the bulky nature of the commodity, will to a very
considerable extent restrict its sale to the localities in which it is
used. Thus in parts of Kent and Sussex hop poles find a ready market,
pea and bean stakes in the gardening districts around London, crate
wood in the neighbourhood of potteries, willow and ash in basket-making
localities, and faggot wood wherever kilns abound, or in the environs
of populous districts generally. It will, therefore, be seen that next
to the question of soil probably the most important is that of local
demand, so that in forming a coppice plantation only such underwood
should be used as there is a demand for in the particular district.
Foreign importations and preferential carriage rates have also dealt
hardly with the profitable cultivation of coppice wood. Coppice wood
may either be grown alone or in company with large standard trees, but
the latter must at all times be kept sufficiently thin, so as not to
overshadow and kill out the undergrowth. There are advantages, too,
in employing standards for the protection they afford to the young
shoots in spring, as also in the amount realized for the periodical
thinnings to which they may be subjected. For this purpose the oak is
to be recommended, but such wide-spreading trees as the ash, elm and
beech, which produce so dense a shade as to kill out or seriously
injure all vegetation that might spring up beneath them, are to be
avoided. Generally where the health and vigour of the coppice wood are
points of first consideration, it will not be advisable to allow the
standard trees to occupy altogether more than about one-fifth of the
wooded area; and even then the lower branches should be pruned off, so
that the effects of shade will be mitigated as much as possible. As to
the woods which coppice most freely, the ash, oak and hazel occupy the
first rank, at least in a profitable sense, the elm, willow, beech,
birch, hornbeam, alder and sycamore occupying a second, but, as before
stated, the nature of the soil, and less so the altitude and exposure,
have everything to do with the particular species that will succeed
best. Thus ash will do well where the soil is moist and loamy, the
Spanish chestnut in sandy or gravelly districts, for rich plains and
hollows the oak will be most remunerative, the alder and willow in
marshy ground, and where bare and exposed, the birch, hazel, beech and
hornbeam will succeed best.
The preparation of the land and planting for coppice are similar in all
respects to that adopted for the growing of an ordinary timber crop.
Where the ground is too wet, draining should be judiciously engaged
in, while trenching, although expensive at first, is amply compensated
for in the increased growth and vigour of the underwood. The pits for
planting may be made from 3½ ft. to 4 ft. apart, and, if the ground
was previously trenched, of sufficient size to hold the roots without
undue cramping. It is always well to keep the stools tolerably close
together, as the shoots take a more erect habit and are straighter
and more valuable than when allowed too much space and side room. Two
years after being planted, or at the end of the second autumn, the
young trees, excepting such as it may be thought advisable to leave as
standards, should be cut over near ground level. This cutting is a most
important operation, and should only be performed by skilled workmen,
with tools of the best description well sharpened. The cut should be
clean and directed upwards, all splitting of the stems and tearing of
the bark being assiduously guarded against as conducive to decay and
early death to the stools. After four years’ growth the shoots should
be thinned out, leaving, say, four on each stool, and these preferably
the strongest, the work being carried out at any time from November to
the end of March, but not during frosty weather.
Upon the kind of wood grown and uses for which it is designed will
depend very much the length of rotation pursued, for while osiers might
profitably be cut at the end of the second year, ash, oak and chestnut
would not usually, even on the best quality of soil, be felled sooner
than from ten to twelve years, and the poorer classes of coppice wood,
especially on light soil, at from twelve to sixteen years. It should
be remembered, however, that the duration of the stool is usually
proportionate to the length of the rotation adopted, and with good
management on fair soil the best class of coppice wood has a duration
of nearly a century. In felling the coppice wood it is always advisable
to cut as near the ground level as possible, the shoots sent up having
the advantage of rooting in the ground and so extending the area of
the stool. The system of allowing the stools, by careless cutting, to
rise in some instances several feet from the ground is contrary to the
methods adopted under the best management. A sharp billhook should be
used for all smaller shoots, a light well-ground axe for those from 3
to, say, 6 inches in diameter, and the cross-cut saw for all over that
size.
The coppice wood is usually sorted out after being cut down, the best
poles being laid aside for the use of the hop grower, the next size for
pit props, or fencing according to the demand of the moment, and so on
until every pole has been sorted according to the use for which it may
be intended, the lop and branches being bound into faggots for fire or
oven-lighting.
The following are the various uses to which underwood is applied:
hoops, hurdles, crate rods, pea stakes, spars for thatching, withes for
faggot-tying, sheep cages, hop poles, brooms, broom handles, skewers
for butchers, chisel handles, plant stakes, whip handles, gunpowder
wood and faggots.
Profits will vary from 15_s._ to 25_s._ per acre, exclusive of the
standards which are left, and the crop, according to age and quality,
will realize from £5 per acre downwards.
Great care is necessary to avoid damage to the stools when removing
the fall, which is not usually done until just before the young buds
are shooting out, and consequently at the time when injury is most
easily brought about. The trampling of horses and passage of wheels
are most injurious, while the browsing of cattle should be carefully
guarded against. Good roads are always a great advantage in a coppice
plantation, and to these as much of the produce as possible should be
carried for loading, thus avoiding damage to the stools.
Although the growth of coppice wood has its disadvantages, particularly
in park scenery, yet it is valuable in this way, that should the crop
from local circumstances not be found remunerative, the plantation can
at any time be converted into a standing wood by allowing the best and
strongest shoots from the stools to form the permanent crop.
The approximate cost of forming a coppice wood per acre is as follows:—
£ _s._ _d._
Trenching at 2_s._ per rod 16 0 0
5,000 trees at 35_s._ per 1,000 8 15 0
Pitting and planting 2 5 0
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£27 0 0