A HISTORY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE 



kept clean by hoeing for some years. Trees so planted and cared for are very distinctly better than 

 where a hole was dug, and a tree put in, but the expense of course has been great. Unfortunately 

 the exposed situation and the shallow soil are rather unfavourable to the growth of good timber, and 

 replanting has also often been necessary for this reason. 



On the Failand estate (near Bristol) the property of the Right Hon. Sir Edward Fry, the 

 wooded area consists only of about 30 acres, scattered in six patches ; most of these are old mixed 

 woods, of the usual character of English copses. 



In the Lydney Park estate (Lydney : Charles Bathurst, esq.) the woodlands extend to 1,645 

 acres. With the exception of some 24 acres planted with larch about thirty years ago, the whole 

 area has probably grown oak timber with underwood of mixed coppice for some hundreds of years. 

 The custom was to cut the coppice every 1 7 years and fell a portion of the largest oak timber at the 

 same time, and as evidently no planting was done for a long period of years, the woods have become 

 thin from decay of stools, damage by rabbits, 1 and the gradual diminishing of the large timber. 



About seven years ago a change was made in this system. As a preliminary measure, the 

 difficult task of exterminating the rabbits was taken in hand, and it is only by persistent trapping, 

 snaring and ferreting, that these pests can be kept down. The bulk of the oak timber (now mostly 

 mature) is being felled on the various sections in their rotation as the coppice falls to be cut; and after 

 being cleared, the whole area either is planted with hardwoods (oak, ash, sycamore, Spanish chestnut 

 and beech) where the soil is suitable, or else larch has been extensively planted on the lighter lands 

 where the soil is dry and gritty. On the boundaries of the woods, on exposed heights, shelter belts 

 of non-deciduous trees, such as Scots, Austrian and Corsican pines and Douglas fir, have been 

 planted, the latter in the most favourable situations. 



About 781 acres of the woodlands have now been replanted in this way, and the larch is 

 naturally showing most progress, the main difficulty being to keep the young plants from becoming 

 overgrown by the coppice and fern, though the cost of clearing and the scarcity of labour are serious 

 drawbacks to this necessary measure. The same difficulty arises with the hardwoods planted among 

 the coppice, with the further disadvantage that considerable damage is caused to the young plants, 

 (especially the ash), by caterpillars eating the leaders of the plants during dry seasons, when the 

 young trees become more or less subject to serious blight. 



On the Dyrham Park estate (Chippenham : the Rev. W. T. Blathwayt) there are about 100 

 acres of woodland. These are mostly old copsewoods with standards of oak principally, with elm, 

 ash, and a few cherries, growing above an underwood consisting mainly of hazel, elm and ash. 

 The young plantations of spruce, Scots pine and larch are small in extent. 



On the Miserden Park estate (Cirencester : A. W. Leatham, esq., D.L.) the woods extend to 

 about 518 acres, scattered in blocks varying from 20 to 70 acres in area. About 200 acres consist 

 of copses with standards of ash and oak principally, 25 acres are young plantations of larch, and the 

 rest is mostly beech of IOO to 130 years of age. Hitherto the system followed has been to clear the 

 hardwoods when mature and plant larch ; but it is now considered that selection felling among the 

 standards and replantation of blank spaces in the coppice is a sounder method of treatment. 



The Blaisdon estate (Newnham : Peter Stubs, esq.) contains 438 acres of woodlands. They 

 consist of coppices, mostly of oak, interspersed with a few timber trees as standards, and are cut over 

 with a rotation of eighteen to twenty years. No plantations have been formed recently. 



On the Bowden Hall estate (J. Dearman Birchall, esq.) there are 250 acres of old beech 

 woods, standing on ' common,' which entail endless disputes between the lord of the manor and the 

 commoners. Selection fellings are made in these woods each year. No recent plantations have been 

 made, owing to the enclosing of common now being illegal. 



On the Haie estate (Newnham : Russell James Kerr, esq.) the woodlands aggregate about 250 

 acres. With the exception of a few acres of recent plantations, the woods are old copses of ash, birch, 

 hazel, chestnut, holly, &c., with standards of oak, ash, beech, birch, elm, larch, fir, &c., cut over at 

 twelve to fifteen years of age according to the condition of the underwood and the market rate for 

 coppice at the time. The fall on such occasions includes mature standards and inferior trees inter- 

 fering with the development of others. The small plantations formed during the last few years have 

 been at 3ft. by 3ft. (4,840 per acre), with hardwoods for timber every 12 yards (33 per acre); but 

 this is found unduly expensive, as early thinnings in this locality have no other market than 

 as firewood. 



On the estates of G. E. Lloyd Baker, esq., J.P., there are about 60 acres of wood at 

 Hardwicke Court (Gloucester), and 112 acres at Uley (near Dursley), on the top of the Cotswold 



"Rabbits seem to have been well kept down by other animals which preyed on them about a hundred 

 years ago ; otherwise it would have been impossible to have raised the extensive larch, oak, and other planta- 

 tions then so successfully and cheaply established all over Britain. This is confirmed by the examinations I 

 have made of old manuscript game-books recording the game shot day by day'; Dr. J. Nisbet, ' Hist, of the 

 Forest of Dean,' Engl. Hist. Rev. (July, 1906), 445 . 



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