CUTTING THE COPPICE.

Hokitika Guardian, 2 April 1924, Page 3

CUTTING THE COPPICE.

The great argument against forestry is that you have In wait (id years or more before you get any return for your money. In point of fuel there is no need to do anything id' the sort. A farmer sells Ids lambs without waiting for them to grow into sheep, and in a similar fashion the owner of a wood can and does, cut, every ten or twelve years, reaping quite a good profit t herefrom. In pre-war days the profit was small —only about C 3 per acre for each tenyear cutting. Today it is much larger and tile prices which underwood fetches arc decidedly high. I have just been trying to purchase poles for a pergola, and find that for lurch pole Is tin* price is 2d a foot, and for oak ltd to Id. Since each polo rims from twelve to fourteen feet ill length it is easy to see that C 5 will not go very far. Larch is best for building a pergola. The wood is tough straight, and does not shrink or split, and one larch pole will outlast three of spruce or fir. Oak will outlast even larch, but, the sticks are not straight. The presoul demand for underwood is considerable. In the old days it was usually grown long enough for itoppoles, but nowadays hops are grown oil wires, and the old-fashioned poles arc* no longer required.

On the other baud, the market for clothes-props, pergola poles, bean and pea sticks, fruit, and flower stakes, hedge slakes, and shepherds' stakes has increased.

Thatching is coining hack to its own, and thatching rods amt pegs are in request. Ash is needed for rake and hoc handies, while faggots are always saleaide. There is no waste, for every stick cut finds a market. Rut the actual cutting is a matter for skilled hands, and the coppice cutter or “bavin-maker” as lie i- sometimes called, must know his job. An untrained man will spoil or waste half tiio stall', whereas the old woodman knows at a glance wlial to cut and how to cut it.

Watch him at work and you will notice that lie has pegs driven into the ground for the purpose of measuring the stems lie cuts.

The shorter pieces go in one pile to he used as hedge stakes; those from seven to seven and a halt toot in another for runner bean poles, while in a third stack arc eight-foot lengths used for staking fruit trees.

All the faggot wood is laid apart from the rest, and it is interesting to watch the bavin-maker hind each laggof in succession with a “withe” made of a thin, tough, green branch.—T. C. 1!. in 'Daily Mail.”