296 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 



be little doubt that love of sport often saved 

 many a remnant of the ancient woods, which, but 

 for that, would probably have been ' wasted ' or 

 cleared when the rage was on for clearing wood- 

 lands, and converting them into arable and pastural 

 land. Even in the fourteenth century it had 

 already been found necessary to enclose portions 

 of the royal forests for their * encoppicement ' and 

 regeneration, to obviate great damage from deer 

 and ground game ; and later on, during James I.'s 

 reign, the ploughing of the land and the sowing 

 of acorns was ordered in the New Forest for im- 

 proving the crop and increasing the number of 

 oak in the woods. But, even earlier than that, 

 Tusser had written in his rhyming book on Five 

 Hundreth Poinles of Good Husbandrie (1573) 



+ 3f aftef + or ong mag enter fo crojn 

 ^ouncj oaft 10 in banger of ib&tng 0t6 toy.* 



Against such damage, or that done by deer, 

 trees can be protected by a casing of wire-netting 

 or by having thorns tied with wire round the lower 

 part of the stem. But these are methods only 

 applicable to parks and the ornamental portions 

 of estates, and are not capable of being carried out 

 on any extensive scale in the woodlands, 



