Coppice Wood for Poles, Billets and Faggots (Evelyn's Sylva, 1706)

"Sylva caedua is (as Varro defines it) as well copp'ce to cut for fuel as for use of timber."

Lay the coppice out in parts that are cut in turn, with 18-20 ft rides of grass between them for carts, and fence it. Plant hazel or birch with ash, chestnut, sallow and sycamore mixed in (at least one in four), no closer than 5 ft; on wet ground drain it and put willow, sallow and alder low down. Or bury sets of sallow, willow or alder, a billet long with both ends sloped. Weed for two years and keep cattle out.

Cut after 8 or 9 years on very good ground, otherwise 12 to 15; 20 years is better. With a 17-year growth, a 17-acre coppice gives one acre to fell every year for ever. Shallow ground 10-12 years, deeper 14.

Fell from January to mid-March or April, or mid-September to near the end of November, starting from one side so carts can enter. Cut no higher than half a foot, the closer the better, slanting, smooth and sloping to the south. Of a bunch of shoots keep the fairest sapling. Leave about twelve good young oaks (or ash, elm, beech) per acre as standards, best on the edges. Keep enough poles round the bounds for the fence.

Sort out the straight poles. Cut billets 3 ft long and 7.5 in round, and bind the brush into round faggots a full yard long and 2 ft round. Stack cordwood 4 ft high, 4 ft broad and 8 ft long (128 cubic feet). Clear everything by Midsummer.

Rake out spray and chips, grub out rotten stubs, fill thin places with new plants, and shut the coppice to cattle: four years if it was cut at 14 years or under, longer if older.

From John Evelyn, **Sylva** (text of the 1706 edition, London reprint 1908), Book III, Chap. I 'Of Copp'ces' (checked on the archive.org scan sylvaordiscourse02evelrich, pp. 1-7). The statutes he cites are 17th-century English law, given as history; metric figures are ours.