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more valuable than when it is from 3 to 6 feet in girth, with a clean stem, a size often attained at fifty to sixty years of age.
In plantations ash is often mixed with other trees, and if allowed to take the lead will do them more harm than oak, but a few ash should be introduced in the best soil of larch or other plantations, because the seedlings, which spring up abundantly, will, when the conifers are cut, renew the plantation naturally, and the parent trees will throw up vigorous shoots from the stool after felling.
In the midland counties, ash is the commonest, and by far the most profitable underwood, being cut at intervals of twelve to twenty years; when the poles are much in demand for many purposes, especially for sheep hurdles. But in most places during the last twenty years ash poles have fallen in value, though larger timber has increased in price ; and so much damage has been done to the stools by rabbits that large areas are now becoming very thin, and the crop inferior. No tree except beech suffers more from rabbits than ash, and where they are allowed to increase, and are not killed before winter, the bark of old trees as well as of under- wood is sure to be peeled, and the natural reproduction from seed checked. I believe that where the soil is stiff, young ash will pay for some cultivation when young, as their shade is not dense enough to keep down grass and weeds, and if they become stunted, as they often do after planting, it is better, and, indeed, necessary, to cut them down to the ground two to five years later.
Self-sown ash seem to grow more vigorously than planted ones, if not too crowded, and their rate of growth is sometimes extraordinary. An ash self-sown in my nursery, at three years old was 7 to 8 feet high, whilst the transplanted seedlings on the same ground were only 3 feet high at the same age. I have seen shoots 6 to 7 feet long the first year from strong healthy stools, and poles worth £15 to £20 per acre at sixteen years old, on land which for agricultural purposes was not worth 8s. an acre. The stools, however, often become worn out and hollow at the base after five or six cuttings, and these should be replaced with seedling plants every time the crop is cut.
Some years ago, when ash coppice began to fall in price, I left the strongest and straightest pole on every stool at the rate of about 160 per acre, with the object of converting the coppice into timber trees. But though, where the soil is good and the stools young, these poles are likely to make useful trees at fifty to sixty years from the last cutting over, yet where the land is poor they have increased but little, and have a hidebound appearance, owing, no doubt, to the want of shelter and the exposure to the sun and wind. I should advise all intending planters of ash to examine carefully the best local ash plantations, and inquire into the probable demand for poles before adopting this course.
The ash is always raised from seed, except in the case of varieties which are grafted on stocks of the common ash. The keys are ripe in late autumn, and often hang on the tree till the following summer, especially when they are not mature. The best-ripened seed, I believe, usually falls first, and should be gathered before winter, and put in a shallow layer mixed and covered with earth or sand, and kept fairly dry until the following winter, when it should be sown. It is advised in books