- BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ARBORICULTURE OF THE NEW FOREST. 37 
a most interesting field for observation. In it, as I have ex- 
plained, may be traced the earliest efforts of our ancestors in the 
direction of tree cultivation, sometimes successfully, sometimes 
thwarted by adverse circumstances, The results of the various 
methods may be watched, from the first days of encoppicing and. 
farming out, with its attendant shrouding and pollarding. The 
later method of sowing mast broadcast, and leaving it to take its 
chance can be seen; but in this and the foregoing case we have 
only the successes to judge by—the failures have long been wiped 
out. Later on we come to the more modern methods of planting 
according to the style introduced by Evelyn, and of the introduc- 
tion of nurses of the coniferous kind. The effects of the too 
rapid removal of the nurse, and of its being left till too late, can 
all be seen by those who will observe and will take pains to 
learn the history of the district. Still later we come to those 
plantations that afford an object-lesson in the reclamation of waste 
land, and which show what can be done with land that is good 
for no other kind of cultivation, and in some cases will not even 
do to plant. We have also admirable specimens of natural repro- 
duction by the simple method of enclosure, and leaving the parent 
trees to seed the ground. 
Although for the present all progressive arboriculture is at a 
standstill, nevertheless, much may be learnt from what was done 
more or less continuously up to twenty yearsago. Many kinds of 
tree have been tried in the Forest by way of experiment. Some 
forty years ago large consignments of the seed of the deodar were 
received from India, and the experiment of growing them was well 
tried in the New Forest. Except in a few favoured spots where 
they have done very well, they have proved a failure, and the result 
of the experiment may be traced by any one desirous of testing it. 
The Douglas fir has also been largely tried, under rather rougher 
conditions than prevail in the well-kept pinetum of most ardent 
arboriculturists, and is a most pronounced success. Many others 
of the best of the coniferee have been planted in groups or in 
avenues, and form objects of great beauty, affording illustrations 
of varying success that are instructive. Possibly at some future 
time this Forest may be again available for experiments that are 
of interest to the whole world of tree planters, but until that 
time arrives a good deal may be learnt from what has been done 
before all enterprise of the kind was abolished. It is to be hoped 
that such visits as that of the Royal Scottish Arboricultural 
