INTRODUCTION. 8 



Hans von Carlowitz in 1713, in his classical work Sylvicultures 



(Economica, which is chiefly devoted to sylviculture, describes 

 several measures of forest protection, including a regulation 

 made in 1680 against caterpillars. 



As regards damage by game, Burgsdorf wrote in 1796 con- 

 cerning the peeling of bark by deer. At the commencement 

 of the nineteenth century, the damage done to forests by game 

 was very considerable ; in a battue held by King Frederick 

 of Wiirtemberg in 1812 in the beech forests near Tubingen, 

 823 deer and wild pigs were killed in two hours. Only 

 since the eventful year 1848 has damage by game to forests in 

 Germany considerably diminished, and become more localised 

 by the constitution of special parks for game. Such was the 

 forest of Compiegne under Napoleon III., where all the forest 

 revenues were absorbed by the cost of fencing and planting the 

 young woods, and where, in 1870, several hundred red-deer 

 and thousands of roes, besides much smaller game, were killed. 



In England, James the First was the first monarch who 

 considered forest trees of more importance than game ; he 

 obtained much unpopularity by enclosing part of Windsor 

 Forest, and put an end to the pollarding of maiden oak-trees, 

 which were lopped in winter to enable the deer to browse off 

 the bark of the lopped branches. None but pollard oak have 

 been lopped in this way since 1608, and the hollow old oak 

 pollards now in the Windsor Forest were in existence before 

 that date. That king's fondness* for knocking rabbits on 

 the head with a stick would, however, be amply satisfied 

 were he now at Windsor, as rabbits have increased in the 

 most alarming manner during the last 20 years, and have 

 destroyed the valuable undergrowth over large areas of the 

 forest. They render the reproduction of the trees exceedingly 

 difficult and expensive, and altogether nullify the proper 

 management of the large area of oak forest planted for the 

 nation in 1816-25. Such wholesale destruction of valuable 

 woods by rabbits would not be allowed in any other European 

 Crown forest. 



Forest grazing was regulated in 1585 by the ordinance of 

 Mansfeld, which prescribed a 5 -years close season for all 



* Hepworth Dixon, " Royal Windsor." 



