MAN V. WOODS 



ev^y village churchyard. Probably this was to ensure a 

 good supply of bows for the English archers, who, like the 

 Scottish spears, were the best soldiers of their kind in 

 Europe. 



So that if we try to compare the conditions of man and 

 of the forests in Great Britain from the earliest days, it 

 would be something like this : — 



1. When the earliest inhabitants lived on shell-fish, sea- 

 birds' eggs, nuts, and fruits, almost the whole country was 

 covered by oak, Scotch fir, or birch forests. 



2. When man was a hunter of reindeer and other deer, 

 horses, cattle, and birds, he used much wood for fires and 

 for building his lake dwellings. 



3. When man kept herds of swine to eat acorns, black 

 cattle, goats, and ponies, there would be many clearings 

 and a great deal of open wood in which the cattle roamed 

 about. 



4. When man grew com and other plants, the forest 

 vanished altogether. Dr. Johnson said he scarcely saw a 

 tree between Carlisle and Edinburgh. Yet first the King, 

 then the Barons, had their parks and woodlands for pre- 

 serving game. Moreover, the yews in the churchyards of 

 England, and the ash trees by the Scotch farmtoons and 

 peel-towers, were carefully looked after. 



5. When great towns arose, and men became factory hands 

 and steel workers, rich men began to make plantations in 

 the lowlands, and to use the depopulated highlands for 

 grouse moors and deer forests. 



6. When men become wiser than they are now, it will be 

 seen that great forests are necessary on all waste-land and 

 barren places, both to keep a healthy country population 

 and because it will pay. 



67 



