108 ENGLISH WOODLANDS 



them and to consider why and under what 

 circumstances they are true. When their appli- 

 cation does not produce successful results the 

 practical forester should acknowledge the limita- 

 tions of practical rules, and call in the services 

 of the botanist or chemist or the expert of 

 whatever other science is concerned. 



In recent years numerous books on forestry 

 have been published in England, and the subject 

 has received considerable attention in the press, 

 in the Journals of Societies, and in inquiries 

 made by Royal Commissions. 



A great part of the instructions given by 

 recent writers to owners of English woods con- 

 sists in a strenuous recommendation to improve 

 their woods by the application of scientific 

 forestry. No definition of scientific forestry is 

 given, but this omission is of less importance 

 than might be expected, for an examination of 

 their works shows that these writers assume 

 that scientific forestry is for all practical pur- 

 poses the same thing as Continental forestry. 



Their views about English woods are fairly 

 unanimous. They consider that they are, speak- 

 ing generally, in a very bad state, producing a 

 crop hardly equal to half of what it ought to 

 be. This condition they consider to be the 



