ENGLISH FORESTRY IN THE PAST n 



pendence upon a supply of oak timber, roused the attention 

 of statesmen and politicians to the condition of the Crown 

 forests, which up to that time were the chief sources of 

 naval timber. Down to this time the stock of natural 

 timber seems to have been amply sufficient to meet the 

 domestic and industrial needs of the country ; but the smelting 

 of iron in Kent, Surrey, and Sussex, the increased use of 

 timber in architecture, and the general increase in the 

 population, all combined to render a supply of this commodity 

 extremely uncertain, and it was beginning to be realised that 

 energetic measures would have to be taken if a serious timber 

 famine was to be averted. It was about this time that the 

 first signs of economic forestry began to show themselves on 

 the Crown lands. Enclosures were made in the royal forests 

 and sown with acorns, beech-masts, etc., greater attention 

 was paid to the exclusion of cattle and the protection of 

 seedlings, and a more accurate classification of the timber- 

 growing capabilities of the Crown lands made. 



The woods of private estates before this time must have 

 been on a very small scale. Hitherto the waste of the 

 manor had provided a sufficient stock of timber for home 

 use and building purposes, agriculture, and fuel all of which 

 had to be provided in the immediate vicinity, owing to the 

 difficulties of transport and the absence of good roads ; but as 

 these manorial wastes were reduced by progressive enclosure, 

 the lord of the manor was compelled to turn his attention 

 to the cultivation of timber and underwood on his own 

 demesne land. No doubt, small enclosures existed as far 

 back as Saxon times, for frequent reference is made to them 

 in Domesday, but beyond the fact that they were divided 

 from the waste over which common rights existed, there is no 

 evidence to show that sylviculture in any shape or form was 

 practised. The earliest plantation in Windsor Park is said 

 to have been made or sown in 1580, and is claimed as the 

 true progenitor, both of the modern royal woods of England, 

 and also of the system of rearing oaks where they never 

 previously existed. Whether this claim can be substantiated 

 or not we do not pretend to say, but there is little doubt 

 that ordinary plantations were not made on anything like a 

 large scale until after the Eestoration. 



