AFFORESTATION. 327 



an underwood of hazel, oak, ash, etc., cut at 

 regular intervals of from eight to ten, or from 

 twenty to twenty -five years, according to 

 local circumstances, became by a statute the 

 typical national form of forestry. 



Underwood or copsewood has, during the 

 last quarter of a century, been hardly worth 

 growing to yield a remunerative return to the 

 owner. With the falling of prices for hoops, 

 ash sticks, hurdles, wattles, poles, and the 

 increase of the mania for game preserving 

 and battues, the underwood has been largely 

 neglected, and in consequence the standard 

 trees as well. 



In the days when the walls of England 

 were of oak, standards were kept well apart, so 

 that each tree in growing freely should provide 

 strong knees and crooks for ships' timber. 

 Modern forestry aims at growing straight 

 stems close together, so as to get the largest 

 and most valuable crop of timber per acre 

 from the ground at the smallest cost of pro- 

 duction ; that is, where forestry in England 

 is scientifically cultivated as a craft. Most 

 owners, unfortunately, regard their woods 

 merely as places of covert for their birds, and 

 as a consequence many of our woods are 



