Early Interest in Forestry. 315 



for the sake of the chase the same medieval policy 

 which animates at present the forest policy of the State 

 of New York. 



The woods outside the 'forests', which had mainly 

 served for the raising of hogs, and for domestic needs, 

 experienced at various times unusual reduction by 

 fire. General Monk, among others, laid waste large 

 areas on the Scottish borderland. 



The first serious inroads occurred in Henry VIII's 

 time, when he seized the church lands for his own use 

 and turned them into cash. James I had fostered 

 colonization schemes, especially in Ireland, which 

 reduced the forest area, while Charles I, always in 

 need of cash, alienated many of the crown forests, 

 besides extorting money through the forest courts. 

 On the other hand Henry VHI and James I had 

 attempted to encourage planting for utility. During 

 the Revolution, beginning in 1642, and during Crom- 

 well'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 supplies, 

 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 Evehii's Sylva, 

 or "A Discourse on Forest Trees," which has experi- 

 enced eleven editions. It should, however, be mentioned 

 that an earlier writer, whom Evehni often quotes, 

 Tuffer, before the reign of Henry VIII, in 1562, pub- 

 Kshed his "Five Hundred Points of Husbandry," a 



