Besides reproducing a wood crop from the seed of mother trees or by
planting, there is another reproduction possible by sprouts from the
stump. This, to be sure, can be done only with broad-leaved species,
since conifers, with but few exceptions, do not sprout from the stump.
When a wood lot is cut over and over again, the reproduction taking
place by such sprouts we call coppice.
Most wooded areas in the Eastern States have been so cut that
reproduction from seed could not take place, and hence we have large
areas of coppice, with very few seedling trees interspersed. As we
have seen in the chapter on "How trees grow," the sprouts do not
develop into as good trees as the seedlings. They grow faster, to be
sure, in the beginning, but do not grow as tall and are apt to be
shorter lived.
For the production of firewood, fence, and post material, coppice
management may suffice, but not for dimension timber. And even to keep
the coppice in good reproductive condition, care should be taken to
secure a certain proportion of seedling trees, since the old stumps,
after repeated cutting, tail to sprout and die out.
Soil and climate influence the success of the coppice; shallow
soils produce weaker but more numerous sprouts and are more readily
deteriorated by the repeated laying bare of the soil; a mild climate is
most favorable to a continuance of the reproductive power of the stump.
Some species sprout more readily than others; hence the composition
of the crop will change, unless attention is paid to it. In the
coppice, as in any other management of a natural wood crop, a desirable
composition must first be secured, which is done by timely improvement
cuttings, as described in a previous section.
The best trees for coppice in the northeastern States are the chestnut,
various oaks, hickory, ash, elm, maples, basswood, and black locust,
which are all good sprouters.
When cutting is done for reproduction, the time and manner are the main
care. The best results are probably obtained, both financially and with
regard to satisfactory reproduction, when the coppice is cut between
the twentieth and thirtieth years. All cutting must be done in early
spring or in winter, avoiding, however, days of severe frost, which is
apt to sever the bark from the trunk and to kill the cambium. Cutting
in summer kills the stump, as a rule. The cut should be made slanting
downward, and as smooth as possible, to prevent collection of moisture
on the stump and the resulting decay, and as close as possible to
the ground, where the stump is less exposed to injuries, and the new
sprouts, starting close to the ground, may strike independent roots.
Fail places or gaps should be filled by planting. This can be readily
done by bending to the ground some of the neighboring sprouts, when 2
to 3 years old, notching, fastening them down with a wooden hook or a
stone, and covering them with soil a short distance (4 to 6 inches)
from the end. The sprout will then strike root, and after a year or so
may be severed from the mother stock by a sharp cut (fig. 15).
For the recuperation of the crop, it is desirable to maintain a supply
of seedling trees, which may be secured either by the natural seeding
of a few mother trees of the old crop which are left, or by planting.
This kind of management, coppice with seedling or standard trees
intermixed, if the latter are left regularly and well distributed over
the wood lot, leads to a management called "standard coppice." In this
it is attempted to avoid the drawbacks of the coppice, viz, failure to
produce dimension material and running out of the stocks. The former
object is, however, only partially accomplished, as the trees grown
without sufficient side shading are apt to produce branchy boles and
hence knotty timber, besides injuring the coppice by their shade.