NATIONAL ASPECTS OF FORESTRY 9 



the clearing round about them, until a time arrived when 

 woodland would be valued for the sake of the timber trees 

 it contained, rather than for the grazing its surface afforded 

 for domestic animals. Even here it is possible to differ- 

 entiate between the value placed upon the timber, and 

 that of the fruit or mast borne by the trees. As late 

 as the eleventh or twelfth centuries, forests in England 

 and many parts of the Continent of Europe were chiefly 

 valued as feeders of swine, deer, etc., and it does not appear 

 that the timber alone was considered of much consequence. 

 By the thirteenth century, however, there is much 

 evidence that the natural supply of timber in many parts 

 of Europe was not greater than the demand for it. It is, 

 at any rate, about this period that regulations and laws 

 for the preservation of the forests other than those con- 

 nected with the chase, began to appear. In some cases, as 

 in Switzerland, the object of these laws may have been as 

 much the preservation of the forests as safeguards against 

 avalanches and landslips, as producers of timber, but 

 apart from these instances, a supply of firewood and 

 building timber was undoubtedly the object in view. 

 Thorold Rogers, Pearson, and other antiquarians and 

 historians inform us that timber and firewood in England 

 had reached a fairly high price about this period, possibly 

 as much on account of bad roads for removing it from a 

 distance, as on account of its actual scarcity. Rogers states, 

 for instance, that underwood in the years 1266 to 1388 

 realised as much as ten shillings or twelve shillings per 

 acre in various counties of England. He remarks^ that 

 'Wood Avas of high relative value in the Middle Ages just 

 as it was in Germany.' Pearson,^ referring to the same 

 period, states, ' Lastly, woods were so essential to existence 

 that it was an object with all proprietors to possess them 

 and keep them.' 



' History of Agriculture. ^ Historical Maps. 



