MR H. C. HILL ON THE FOREST OF DEAN. 297 
been allowed to become complete with oak and beech, the opening 
of the enclosures would not have resulted in such serious harm. 
It is an easy matter to point out, now that the results are 
apparent, the mistake that was made. In these days, too, we 
have the experiences of other nations in growing oak to guide us, 
as well as examples in the Forest of Dean itself, showing clearly 
the conditions which are favourable, and which it is desirable to 
establish. Fifty years ago there was the laudable ambition to 
grow a maximum quantity of crooked oak rather than the less 
valuable beech, and though there may have been the recognition 
of the light-loving nature of the oak, there was also the erroneous 
idea of admitting sunlight on the boles. On the whole, and not 
without some reason at the time, conditions essential for the 
growth of fine oak timber came to be overlooked.” 
Mr Hill thus discusses the future management of the forest :— 
“Tf the Forest of Dean is to be maintained permanently as a 
forest, the chief object ought to be to place the 11,000 acres, 
which the Crown has the right to enclose, under favourable 
conditions of growth, in view to the establishment of a complete 
crop of mixed beech and oak in high forest, with scattered larch, 
chestnut, sycamore, and other trees. If this is done, the natural 
character of the famous forest will be restored and handed down 
to posterity, and the fine oak timber for which the forest is 
renowned may again be grown, and eventually harvested with 
other woods in the shape of a regular annual yield. The lower 
value of beech as compared with oak should in no way prevent 
its being grown in proper proportion, because it is only by the 
aid of the beech that fine oak can be grown, and the increased 
price commanded by the latter over that of oak grown in pure 
open woods will more than compensate for the low price of the 
beech.” 
“With the exception of the Lining Wood of 80 acres and some 
parts where oak is making no growth, the whole of the woods 
will have to be tended on to a maturity, which they will not 
attain for some fifty or sixty years. 
“Tn the oldest woods, where a naturally-grown underwood 
exists, as in Russells, Chestnuts, and Lea Bailey enclosures, rest 
only is required to allow it to grow up and complete the woods. 
The oaks are already too far apart, and for the next twenty years 
these may be allowed to grow on to a more useful girth. In the 
VOL. XV, PART II, 2B 
