128 ENGLISH ESTATE FORESTRY 



as much in its crooked branches as in its straight and clean 

 stem, the aim of the old forester was the production of 

 heavily branched and wide-crowned trees, and heavy thinning 

 at a comparatively early age naturally became the rule. 

 What was suitable for the oak was considered more or less 

 so for other species, or possibly little trouble was taken to 

 discriminate between their requirements in this respect. 

 It is not at all certain, however, that excessive thinning was 

 the universal mistake made in the old days. Crops of 

 timber exist, or have existed within recent times, which 

 prove that beech, Scots fir, and other species were allowed 

 to grow up in close order, whether from design or neglect 

 we do not pretend to say. But it is only reasonable to 

 suppose that the almost universal cultivation of oak had a 

 considerable influence upon the practice of thinning in 

 general, which survived after the reasons for following it 

 had died out. 



The second cause we have given for the prevalent ideas 

 on the subject may be regarded as savouring of bigotry, 

 but we believe it is supported to a great extent by facts. 

 It has already been stated in another chapter that com- 

 paratively little planting was done in England in the first 

 half of the nineteenth century, for which reasons have been 

 given. When the revival (if such it can be termed) of 

 planting set in, a great change had come over the conditions 

 of English forestry. Oak no longer held its old place, the 

 bulk of the land which required planting was fit only for 

 conifers, and landowners wanted trees which would form 

 game cover as quickly as possible, while the larch had come 

 to the front as a tree which would give a good profit in the 

 least possible time. All these changes had their influence 

 upon the ideas of landowners, and, when they contemplated 

 planting, they naturally looked out for men accustomed to 

 the altered conditions of things to do it. Brown's Forester 

 probably led many to turn their thoughts to the north, 

 to the inhabitants of which forestry is somehow supposed 

 to be a natural gift and imbibed with their mother's milk. 

 Scotch land agents had already crossed the border and 

 remained across, and these gentlemen naturally recollected 

 "Auld Sandy MacThis " or "Willie MacThat," the laird's 



