COPSE, kZips, a cultivated wood, where the trees are cut periodically, before they attain timber size, each succeeding crop being cut from the stumps of the first growth. A copse or coppice is sometimes used as an omamental growth, where large trees would not be desir able, but their chief use is as a source of profit. When cultivated under the rules of scientific forestry, they may be made a very valuable adjunct to the farm lands. The practice is not common in America, where the idea of profit from woodland is that the land muit be allowed to grow up to timber, and then be entirely denuded. In Europe, particularly in England, the most valuable tree thus employed is the oak, which is cut at intervals varying, according to soil and climate, from 12 to 30 years; and after paying all expenses it often yields from $150 to $250 per acre in bark used for tan ning and in wood convertible into wheel-spokes, or applicable to other purposes. The stems, cut over near the ground, are carefully dressed and rounded, so as to prevent them from rot ting; in a -short time a number of shoots appear, all of which are thinned away except three or four of the most promising, which are left to grow till they again become fit for another cutting. When plantations are exten sive, the method usually followed is not to allow all the copse to come to maturity at the same time, but to divide A into a number of sections and to cut one of them annually, so as to yield a revenue with as much regulanty, and not infrequently to as large an amount as an equal quantity of land under cultivation. For
instance, a copse of 100 acres, on the assump tion that it may be profitably cut after 20 years' growth, is divided into 20 sections of five acres each. By cutting only one of these sections annually a perpetual succession of cuttings is obtained, yielding, on the most moderate cal culation, a clear income of at least $500 per annum. The proprietors of many of the rocky glens of Great Britain, by pursuing this method, have materially increased the value of their estates. The other kinds of wood commonly used for copse are chestnut, which, from its durability, even when partly inserted in the ground, is valuable for posts, etc.; ash, pre ferred for all purposes where strength and elasticity are required; and hazel, admirably adapted for barrel hoops, and in great demand for crates in the vicinity of 'potteries. The wil low, well known for its uses in basket-making, being cut down regularly after every year's growth, scarcely falls under the head of copse. In some continental countries the copse is the source of the whole fuel supply.