6i2 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



interesting that Henry III. then laid down: "No man from 

 henceforth shall lose neither life nor member for killing our 

 Deer." This law applied to the royal forests only, while chases, 

 parks, and warrens which the King granted to his subjects were 

 governed by common law. 



Abuses were not long in arising with the large number 

 employed to administer a law not always very definite in 

 application, and it was not until the Forest Ordinance of 1306 

 that the clamour for relief was for a time appeased, and not 

 until 1327, in the reign of Edward III., that the oppression of 

 Forest Law was finally broken. 



In 1482 it was first recognised that a subject might own a 

 forest, and the cutting and sale of wood was authorised. This 

 was the signal for the wastage and destruction of much forest, 

 as is testified in Holinshed's Description of England (1577). A 

 consequence was that, in 1504, the planting of at least one acre 

 of wood was compulsory where no great wood or forest existed 

 on the estate, and in 1543 Henry VIII. ordered "the replanta- 

 tion of forest trees to cure the spoils and devastations that have 

 been made in the woods." In 1534 the first work in the English 

 language on the cultivation of trees was issued by Master Fitz- 

 herbert. 



There is no very complete record of Forest Laws in Scotland 

 and Ireland, where they probably did not exist as early as in 

 England. Later many of the English laws were adopted in 

 Scotland, but on the whole the provisions were more reasonable 

 and the penalties less severe. 



The clearing of woodland was still further encouraged by 

 James I. and his successor Charles I., and in 1640 the Act for 

 the Limitation of the Forests was passed, finally rendering any 

 extension of the royal forests impossible. 



In 1662 John Evelyn was selected, with a view to ensuring a 

 more plentiful supply of oak for shipbuilding, to discourse upon 

 the pleasures and profits of growing timber. His Sylva ; or, 

 A Discourse of Forest Trees and the Propagation of Timber in His 

 Majesty's Dominions, is the great classic of British forestry. In 

 spite of all endeavours, the supply of oak decreased, while the 

 tonnage of the Navy had increased from 17,110 tons in 1603 to 

 413,667 tons in 1788. Fortunately the importation of teak 

 staved off" what would otherwise have meant disaster. 



Increased demand for timber for other purposes enabled a 



