FORESTRY AND THE NEW FOREST 



occasional hardwoods of other kinds. In the early part of last century a large quan- 

 tity of oak was cut in these woods for ship-building, most of the finest trees having 

 then been apparently taken, so that the greater part of the timber now growing is 

 small and rather poor in quality, while it has apparently been grown from the stool. 

 Except in about 137 acres which have been cleared and replanted (chiefly with coni- 

 fers) during the last thirty-two years, the undergrowth throughout the old woodlands 

 is mostly hazel, used for hurdle-making and worked with a rotation of ten to twelve 

 years, and at each fall the oak timber forming the overwood is ' thinned.' The trees, 

 being rather small, are as a rule barely sufficient to supply the requirements of the 

 estate (which extends to about 10,000 acres). Before each fall of the underwood all 

 the young oak saplings, and any other young hardwood trees which are likely to 

 grow into timber, are marked and allowed to stand in the usual way ; and where the 

 timber and tellers are very thin, acorns are now annually being dibbled in on the 

 fresh falls. At one time the underwood used to realize from ,8 to 10 per acre, but 

 it now fetches only from ja to 5. The increase permitted in the number of rabbits 

 has been the cause of great injury both to the timber and the underwood, and at the 

 present time the woods are of more value for sporting purposes than anything else. 

 Of the 137 acres planted since 1870, 123^ acres have been replantations of old woods 

 cleared and 13^ acres have been new plantation, 6 acres of which have been raised 

 for game purposes only. In these recent plantations larch is the prevailing tree, inter- 

 mixed in some cases with other conifers and in others with oak and various hardwoods. 

 In the plantations of 1870 made of pure larch (6 acres) and of 1887 made with larch 

 and a few spruce (8 acres) the trees are very much damaged through the canker disease 

 caused by the fungus Pezziza Willkommn. In replanting the old woods the under- 

 wood was felled but not grubbed and all the timber was cleared except a few young 

 trees, the ground been pitted and planted. For a few years after planting the stool- 

 shoots springing up had to be cut back till the young trees were able to maintain 

 themselves without further assistance. 



The Right Hon. the Earl of Selborne's woodlands at Blackmoor (Liss) consist of 

 about 400 acres of forest, but only about 306 acres are actually stocked with timber 

 in the copsewoods and recent plantations. Of these 171 acres are old copse dating 

 back probably from time immemorial, and 135 acres of young conifer plantations 

 ranging up to thirty-seven years of age. They lie at elevations varying from 300 

 to 500 feet above the sea level. Many of the ancient copses in this district formerly 

 furnished large supplies of oak for the naval dockyards, but the tracts still remaining 

 under woods vary greatly as regards the quality of the oak timber they now bear. In 

 many cases it seems clear that the finest trees were long since removed, while those 

 left standing consisted mostly of short-boled trees with large spreading branches. In 

 other cases the soil seems hardly deep enough for fine growth of oak, the stems being 

 here also short and the branch development excessive. From about 1864-94 none of 

 the standard trees in the copses had been felled, and no storing of tellers had been 

 made to provide for the future supply of overwood. During that time the only fall 

 made was the cutting of the coppice undergrowth in a rotation of about ten to twelve 

 years. The coppice now fetches only from 4 to 5 an acre, whereas formerly it 

 usually sold at from 10 to ,15 an acre. Barking of oak, once a remunerative 

 operation, now hardly pays at present rates. During the last two or three years a 

 more definite scheme of management has been introduced (based upon a ten years' 

 rotation), with a view to (i) a more regular and methodical clearance of mature 

 standard trees and to selecting sound young oak or ash poles to take their place as 

 timber, and (2) the improvement and thickening of the underwood. The standards 

 forming the overwood are mostly of oak, varying from 2 to 7 feet in girth and often 

 with enormously branching crowns, and of ash of somewhat inferior growth, all 

 scattered irregularly over the areas ; while the bulk of the coppice, often with large 

 blank spaces, consists mostly of hazel, with oak, ash, birch, willow, aspen, and in 

 some falls a little chestnut, beech and sycamore. The manner in which the clearance 

 and the replacement of the mature standard trees are being effected is indicated in 

 the following extract from the scheme of management : 



' Owing to the great irregularity of the present crops, in which old standards are 

 plentiful but young stores scarce, the normal formation of different classes of standards, 



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