Recent Improvements. 47 



already effected much good both for the district and the inhabi- 

 tants. The enclosures are now systematically drained ; and the 

 Foresters find, in the works which are being carried forward, 

 regular employment throughout the year.* A large nursery has 

 been formed at Rhinefield, and somewhere about 700 acres 

 are annually planted, the young oaks being set between Scotch 

 firs, which serve both as " nurses " to draw them up, and a 

 screen to shelter them from the winds. Experiments, too, are 

 being made to acclimatize several new trees, but it is premature 

 to judge with what success. 



Further, I need scarcely add that all sorts of schemes, 

 from the day when Defoe proposed to colonize the district 

 with the Palatine refugees from the Rhine to the present, have 

 been suggested for reclaiming the Forest. None have ever, 

 from the nature of the soil, been found to answer ; and the 



property, Avithin the Forest bonndaries, 27,140 acres; copyhold, belongin"- 

 to her jMajesty's manor of Lyndhurst, 12,5; leasehold, under tlie Crown, 

 600; enclosures belonging to the lodges, 500; freeholds of the Crown, 

 planted, 1,000; woods and wastes of the Forest, 63,000: total, 92 365 

 acres. The value of timber supplied to the navy during the last ten years 

 has been, on the average, nearlj^ 7,000/. a year. The receipts for the 

 year ending 31st ot JMarch,. 1860, derived from the sale of timber, bark, 

 fagots,- marl, and gravel, and rent of farms and cottages, &c., were 

 23,125/. 6s. 6rf. ; whilst the expenses for labour, trees, carriage of timber, 

 and salaries, were 12.913/. Is. 7a'; thus showing a considerable profit. 

 (From the Thirty-eighth Report of the Commissioners of her Majesty's 

 Woods and Forests ) The management of the Forest is now in the hands 

 of a deputy- surveyor, three assistants, and eight keepers; whilst four 

 verderers try all cases of stealing timber, turf, and furze. 



* See further, on the condition of the Forest population, chapters xv. and 

 xvi. AVhen stripping bark and felhng timber in the spring, the men can earn 

 considerably more than at other times. The average wages are two shillin"-s 

 a day for ordinary labourers, but all work, which can be, is done by the 

 piece. 



