34 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
nation to decide that as an open space the New Forest was of 
more value than as a timber farm worth so many thousands 
a year. The effect of the first great exhibition had begun to tell; 
the zsthetic education of the people had commenced, and one of 
its first effects was shown in the growing appreciation of beautiful 
scenery. All these causes, after being at work for some years, 
culminated in the practical repeal of the Deer Removal Act, and 
in the passing of the Act of 1877, under which the Forest is now 
administered. But just as in the former case, the pendulum again 
swung too far. A bitterness had been imported into the dis- 
cussion, which was as mischievous as it was deplorable, and, just 
as in 1851 the provisions of that Act, by the excessive planting 
they ordained, resulted in the long run in abolishing all planting 
whatever, so now, in 1877, an Act was passed which, while 
intending to provide for the preservation of the woods of the 
Forest, in reality prevented any steps whatever being taken for 
that end. A hard and fast line was drawn between plantations 
formed since the year 1700, and those made previously. The 
former alone were allowed to be re-enclosed or replanted, but as 
they were all well covered with a crop of trees, the provision was 
of little or no use. Under no circumstances may the whole of 
the crop be removed from a single acre, so that in the event of a 
last thinning being reached, or a failure of the crop setting in, 
the decaying trees must be left to perish at their leisure, and the 
wood will have to wait till, by the hand of time or some serious 
gale, it is cleared enough to admit of a chance of regeneration by 
enclosing and natural succession. As the time when this can for 
the most part be done is in the dim future, it is not worth 
while to speculate upon what may then take place. But the 
case of the older woods is widely different. These are naturally, 
from their greater age, the very ones that stand most in need 
of being specially protected, and call for some steps to be taken 
to provide that they shall be perpetuated in all their magnificent 
beauty. Unhappily, the Act that in so many words ordains 
that they shall be preserved, in the same breath prevents that 
object being achieved. 
Under no circumstances may one single rod of land outside the 
limits of the ‘‘ear-marked” plantations be enclosed against the 
cattle of the commoners. It would be waste of time for me to 
enter into the impossibility of arboriculture on land that is open 
to excessive grazing. Most of these woods are far past their best, 
