BRITISH FORESTRY. 99 



were ripe, or not felled, according to the caprice or pecuniary 

 requirements of the owner. Timber for estate purposes was cut 

 quite without regard to the main crop; very often the squire 

 himself, wholly without technical training in silviculture, amused 

 himself by marking the trees to be felled in his woods. The 

 prevailing practice was hand-to-mouth, modified by local custom 

 and individual caprice. 



The reader may wonder why this statement is put in the 

 preterite, not being aware of any revolution affecting British 

 Avoodcraft in the last ten years. It is true that the aspect of our 

 woodlands has not undergone any marked change; but it is 

 also true that landowners are awakening to a sense of lost 

 opportunities, and that many of them have already taken 

 advantage of the skilled instruction which has been provided, 

 under which guidance working-plans have been drawn up and 

 initiated on several large estates. This step, however, has 

 brought us face to face with a difficulty which, in many cases, 

 can only be overcome by co-operation between neighbouring 

 proprietors. Woods must not be felled without regard to the 

 eff'ect of the clearance upon adjacent woods ; for storms visit 

 such indifference with disastrous effect. Turning to German 

 forestry management as the most highly organised in Europe, 

 one finds this contingency amply provided for. Not only are 

 the annual fellings upon each estate, Crown or private, carefully 

 planned so as to avoid exposing growing wood on the same 

 estate to the dangerous wind-quarter, but the law compels every 

 owner to regulate such fellings with due regard to their effect 

 upon the forest of adjoining proprietors. 



The causes, then, of the greater damage inflicted by storms 

 upon British woodland than upon Continental forest may be 

 summed up as faulty design in planting, mismanagement 

 during growth, and want of management at maturity. On 

 the whole, the British climate must be regarded as exception- 

 ally favourable to tree-growth, being temperate and humid 

 — conditions which render necessary a certain modification in 

 forest management as practised on the Continent, where the 

 winter is colder and the summer hotter than with us. 



Before considering these modifications, it must be shown that 

 planters may proceed to regenerate their woodlands with a 

 reasonable certainty of finding a profitable market for their 



