Af^jSQ,^-^ Great Britain. 



through the forest courts. During the Revolution, 

 beginning in 1642, and during Cromwell's reign a 

 licentious devastation of the confiscated or mortgaged 

 noblemen's woods took place. 



Finally, under Charles II, the needs for the royal 

 navy forced attention to the reduction of wood sup- 

 plies, and as a result of the agitation to encourage the 

 growth of timber, a member of the newly formed 

 Royal Society was deputed to prepare an essay, 

 which, published in 1662, has become the classic work 

 of English forest literature, namely John Evelyn's 

 Sylva, or "A Discourse of Forest Trees" which has 

 experienced eleven editions. It should, however, be 

 mentioned that an earlier writer, whom Evelyn often 

 quotes, Tuffer, before the reign of Elizabeth, in 1526, 

 published his "Five Hundred Points of Husbandry," 

 a versification in which treeplanting received atten- 

 tion. Ever since that time, periodically and spas- 

 modically, the question of forestry has been agitated, 

 without much serious result. 



From 1775 to 1781, the Society of Arts in London 

 offered gold medals and prizes for treeplanting, and 

 in the beginning of the 19th century a revival of arbori- 

 cultural interest was experienced, perhaps as a result 

 of an interesting report by the celebrated Admiral 

 Nelson on the mismanagement of the forest of Dean, 

 concern for naval timber giving the incentive, in which 

 he recommended the planting of oak for investment. 



At that time, a Surveyor-General, with an insuffi- 

 cient force, was in charge of the crown forests. In 

 1809, the management was placed under a board of 

 three Commissioners, one of whom being a member 



