CHAPTER IV. 



CONSERVATION, REPLENISHING, AND EXTENSION 

 OF FORESTS. 



IN succeeding chapters will be supplied information in 

 regard to the forest legislation in England, in regard 

 to this, from very early times till the Reformation ; and 

 in regard to this, from the time of the Reformation till 

 end of the eighteenth century. In the former period 

 attention was given almost exclusively to the preserva- 

 iton of game ; in the latter attention is given also to the 

 conservation of the trees of the forest for a supply of 

 fuel, of wood, and of timber. 



By this legislation the progressive destruction of woods 

 and of trees in the forest may have been retarded some- 

 what, but it was not arrested ; and continuously throughout 

 the whole historic period embraced by the legislature in 

 question the destruction went on. But while this waste 

 and destruction of forests has been going on, efforts have 

 from time to time been made to arrest it; and towards 

 the close of last century, but still more from the commence- 

 ment of the nineteenth century, on to the present time, the 

 replenishing of the forests with trees and the extension of 

 woodlands by planting has been advocated with increased 

 energy. 



In the sixteenth century we find a note of warning 

 against the evil consquences likely to follow the wasteful 

 destruction of forests, in "An Historical Description of 

 the Island of Britain, by Mr Hamsen," given in Holin- 

 shed's Chronicles of which a reprint appeared in 1807. 

 In a curious chapter on Woods and Marshes, the author 

 complains of the rapid decrease of the forests, and adds : 



