FOREST RIGHTS. 75 



(e) And so are the risks of offences, and forest fires. 



(/) Control of the right-holders involves much otherwise 

 unnecessary work both in the office and forest. 



(g) The revenue from a forest is reduced, not only by loss 

 of produce, but also by degradation of the soil owing to 

 pasture or removal of litter. 



(h) Disputes arise, and risk of litigation, and of ill-feeling 

 culminating in revengeful attempts to burn or otherwise 

 injure the forest. Forest right-holders are also tempted to 

 presume on their position and encroach on the rights of 

 the owners.* 



Looking at the question from the broad point of view of 

 political economy, forest servitudes encourage extravagance in 

 the use of wood, and establish a backward style of agriculture, 

 as regards the use of litter for manure, loppings for fodder, 

 and forest grazing, which may in the end overtax the forest 

 and result in serious forest destruction and consequent 

 injuries to the country, from floods, landslips and other 

 physical evils against which forests are a natural and often 

 effective protection. 



The degree of danger incurred, irrespectively of the character 

 of the servitude, depends on the conditions of the locality and 

 the density of the standing crop. A completely stocked wood, 

 on favourable site (as regards slope, exposure, etc.), and 

 with a mild climate, suffers (proportionately) least of all. 



7. Equitable Principles in Dealing with Rights. 



Where forest laws exist, there is usually provision for the 

 record of all forest rights, and for the definition of those which 



* In the New Forest, the present tendency is for commoners to exaggerate their 

 rights at the expense of those of the Crown ; and in 1 894 they attempted to prevent 

 the Crown from erecting a saw-mill and exercising other rights of ownership in 

 the forest. In the Forest of Dean, since 1857, grazingby sheep is largely practised ; 

 and it remains to be seen whether the Commissioners of Woods and Forests will 

 be able to stop this practice, which is fast ruining the Forest of Dean, for 

 centuries the most productive oak forest in Britain. Sheep are not beasts-of- 

 common by English law (see " Williams on Rights of Common," 1880, p. 232), 

 and no prescriptive right to sheep-grazing can arise in England ; the question is 

 whether local feeling in favour of the commoners will be allowed to override 

 the national interest in this matter. 



