VANISHED COUNTRY HOMES 



Where once there were thriving, prosperous cities with 

 enormous populations, now the goats graze or a few miser- 

 able peasants carefully husband the water of a few miserable 

 streams. The same thing has happened in Mauritius, in 

 the Cape Verde and Canary Islands, and in many other places. 



But men are now beginning to see how dangerous the 

 destruction of forests may be, and in many countries and 

 especially in Britain, new forests are being planted. Perhaps 

 in time we may grow in Britain so much timber that we shall 

 gain something like £32,000,000 a year, which is what we 

 spend on imported woods. 



At present plover, whaups, snipe, and grouse, or useless red 

 deer, inhabit what was once the Caledonian forest, and every 

 thousand acres of such land nowadays supports perhaps one 

 shepherd and half a gamekeeper. But when it is planted 

 again with woodlands it will afford a living to at least ten 

 foresters, and surely a whole gamekeeper as well. 



In the lowlands of Scotland and in England one often 

 discovers, in walking over the hills, remains of cottages and 

 farmhouses which have now vanished. The people have 

 gone into the towns, and the healthy yeomen and farmers' 

 boys have become weak-chested factory hands and hooligans. 

 Such sites of old farms can often be recognized by a patch 

 of nettles, and especially by eight or nine ash trees. These 

 were always planted near the houses to give a ready supply 

 of wood for spears. The ash, " for nothing ill,'' as Spenser 

 puts it, would be available also for repairing the handles of 

 tools, carts, etc. Some authorities say that it was the law of 

 Scotland that these eight or nine ash trees should be planted 

 at every " farmtoon." 



So also, when forests began to vanish in England, laws 

 were made to the effect that yew trees should be planted in 



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