38 The yojirtial of Forestry. 



wood, even on a man's own freehold, within the forest without 

 licence. It is a corruption of the Latin vastare. To assart, is to 

 cut down trees or shrubs frequented by the beasts of the 

 forest ; and " purpresture " is an encroachment on the forest by build- 

 ing, enclosure, &c., an offence which must have been committed 

 pretty freely of late years. Either by repeal, by. Act of Parliament, 

 or by long disuse, forest laws have altered materially, but only one 

 well-conversant in this species of legal lore can, with any degree ot 

 certainty, determine which of the ancient decrees are yet in force. 

 Before the reign of Henry VIII. a list of sixty-eight forests is given 

 as existing in England, the date being fixed as before the reign 

 of Henry VIII. by the omission of Hampton Court. The commis- 

 sioners appointed during the reign of George III. to inquire into the 

 state of the woods, forests, and land revenues of the Crown, presented 

 to Parliament seventeen reports between 1787 and 1793. Various 

 Acts have subsequently been framed upon these reports, by which 

 certain forests are disafforested, or enclosed in part or in whole, the 

 bounds of others are ascertained, and permission is given for exchange 

 or alienation. 



Price of Hop Poles. 



In spite of the preservation of hop-poles by the creosoting process, their 

 price has increased very much latterly, so that good 16 feet poles for Golding 

 hops, used mainly in East and Mid-Kent and Hants, cost at least 55s. per 100 

 poles when they are creosotedand got on the lands. As three of these are put 

 to one hill, at least 3,000 are required per acre, so that the cost of providing 

 one acre of Golding hops with suitable poles would be £82 10s. Useful 14 feet 

 coppice-grown poles cost at least 35s. per 100 poles before they are ready to 

 set up ; and really good poles, grown in ' plantations,' chiefly ash and chestnut 

 of from nine to ten years' growth, cost quite 40s. per 100, or £60 per acre. 

 Fourteen feet poles are put to Goldings in poorer soils, and to Bramlings and 

 less biny sorts of Goldings in Kent and Hants. The cost of 12 feet poles, 

 which are used for Grapes and Jones' hops chiefly, ranges from 25s. to 28s. 

 per 100, and the cost of providing an acre with poles of this size would be 

 about £46. The annual average cost of * furnishing ' an acre of hops, to 

 supply the place of those broken by accident or by wind, or decay in course 

 of time, varies from £4 to £5, according to the sort of hops. Fir poles, which 

 some growers affect, cost from 10 to 15 per cent, more than other sorts. 

 Quantities of these are brought from Norway, and are for the most part 

 straight and well grown. Many are also sent from Belgium, but they are 

 not 30 straight as the Norwegians. Woodland is being grubbed to such an 

 extent throughout Kent and Sussex that poles must be much dearer still, 

 especially if the hop acreage increases during the next few years in the same 

 ratio that it has increased during the last seven years, for it will be found 

 upon reference to the Agricultural Eeturns, that from 1870 to 1877 over 

 10,000 acres have been added to the English hop plantations during that 

 period. — Agricultural Gazette. 



