1 88 TRANSACTIONS OF ROYAL SCOTTISH ARBORICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



old woodland converted into arable, "within a few yeares is 

 made so bare, as the present gaine is quickly lost." ^ 



A generation later Gabriel Plattes, who had advice to give on 

 many subjects, but especially on mining and agriculture, wished 

 to see "all Timber trees planted in hedgerowes, and by this means 

 no ground will be lost : but all woods and thornie grounds may 

 be turned into fruitfuU fields and pastures, and are apt to be 

 made fertile by my new inventions." He believed that the 

 shortage of timber would in this way be supplied, and many 

 other advantages secured to the benefit of agriculture and of 

 tenant farmers in parti cular."-' 



Gabriel Plattes deplored importation — "the multitude of 

 Timber brought yearely from Norway and other parts" — which, 

 in his view, exhausted the wealth of the country : ^ but, in fact, 

 in this way the timber -using industries of the country were 

 increasingly supplied. What could not be imported was wood- 

 fuel, whether for industrial or domestic purposes. It was for 

 this reason that the much disliked coal — sea-coal and pit-coal — 

 had passed into general use wherever it could be brought by 

 water or wherever pits were at hand. And it was for this 

 reason, among others, that men opposed the inclosure of 

 commons : " Here can we get a furze, a feme, a green bush, or 

 a dried cowsharn, to keep our selves close by the fire in a cold 

 season, when your City-trades will not allow you no such ease, 

 nor yield you fuell without your money."* On the other side, it 

 was argued that by the inclosure of wastes and marshes better 

 fuel would be supplied: "The Hedge-rowe of enclosures will 

 beget (instead of the now supposed benefit of Fuell) such a 

 certaine increase of good and substantiall firing, as both in 

 quantity and quality our uses will be far better served then now, 

 and besides (by the Owners' diligence, or a publique Command) 

 such an increase of Timber (for building and other occasions) 

 will out of the same in the future be raised, as the great decay 

 and spoile thereof made in the latter times, may hereafter be 

 well re-supplied and recovered." In marsh-lands "by setting 

 Willows in the banks of these enclosures . . . the noysome 

 burning of the Dung of Cattel, now scratcht from these Wastes 



1 New Directions (1615), A.3, B.3. 



- A Discovery of Infinite Treasure (1639), pp. lO fF. 



^ Ibid., pp. 9. 17. 



^ Moore, Bread for the Poor, p. 6. 



