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.
PLAN OF MANAGEMENT.
In order to harmonize the requirements of the wood lot from a sylvicultural point of view, and the needs of the farmer for wood supplies, the cutting must follow some systematic plan.
The improvement cuttings need not, in point of time, have been made all over the lot before beginning the cuttings for regeneration, provided they have been made in those parts which are to be regenerated. Both the cuttings may go on simultaneously, and this enables the farmer to gauge the amount of cutting to his consumption. According to the amount of wood needed, one or more groups may be started at the same time. It is, however, desirable, for the sake of renewing the crop systematically, to arrange the groups in a regular order over the lot.
Fig. 15.—Method of layering to produce new stocks in coppice wood.
[4. HOW TO CULTIVATE THE WOOD CROP.]
Where only firewood is desired, i. e., wood without special form, size, or quality, no attention to the crop is necessary, except to insure that it covers the ground completely. Nevertheless, even in such a crop, which is usually managed as coppice,[2] some of the operations described in this chapter may prove advantageous. Where, however, not only quantity but useful quality of the crop is also to be secured, the development of the wood crop may be advantageously influenced by controlling the supply of light available to the individual trees.