CHAPTER V. 



STATE OF CROWN FOEESTS IN THE EIGHTEENTH 

 CENTURY. 



TOWARDS the close of the century, increased attention 

 was given to the importance of the forests as lands 

 yielding timber urgently required for the maintenance 

 of the navy. It was not, then, for the first time in the 

 history of the forests that the importance of the forests 

 in producing wood had been realised ; but the demand for 

 timber was now becoming so much more urgent, that a 

 new development, if not a new departure, was given to 

 the forest economy of the country. 



Commissioners, were appointed to enquire into the state 

 and condition .of the woods and forests and land revenues 

 of the Crown, with power to sell or alienate forests held 

 in fee, and other unimprovable rents. 



Their first report, dated 25th January 1787, stated 

 difficulties which had been experienced in the enquiry, 

 which were attributed by them to the novelty of the 

 undertaking in connection with the woods and forests, and 

 they intimated that some delay must take place in their 

 preparation of a report on the state and condition of these. 



In their second report, dated llth December 1787, 

 while reporting on the land revenues of the Crown, they 

 stated that it had been their expectation that they would 

 have been able to report at the same time the result of 

 their enquiries relative to the management and the con- 

 dition of the woods and forests ; but they had discovered 

 such abuses in connection with the management of these 

 that it was impossible to report fully in regard to them 

 then. And in subsequent reports, severally devoted in 



