FORESTRY 



Early in the nineteenth century the only places where even 

 some poor scattered remnants of the original woodlands still existed 

 were the deer-parks at Greystoke, Gowbarrow, Muncaster and Crof- 

 ton, and the former deer-parks at Cockermouth, Naworth, Brampton, 

 Isel, Brayton, Castlerigg, Ulpha, Millom, Crookdake and Netherhall. 

 But on some of the estates a good deal of planting was done, sometimes 

 of oak and other hardwoods in the valleys, or of larch and pine on the 

 hills. Perhaps one of the best wooded of these during the early part 

 of the eighteenth century was the manor of Castlerigg, which along 

 with other estates in Cumberland had been granted to Greenwich 

 Hospital after the attainder of the Earl of Derwentwater in 1715, for 

 in 1777 it is spoken of as having been 'replenished with a prodigious 

 quantity of tall stately large oaks ; all which the trustees of Greenwich 

 Hospital have cut down and sold, but within a few years past they have 

 made some small plantations.' * These plantations here mentioned are 

 still standing and consist chiefly of oak trees of large dimensions inter- 

 spersed with other hardwoods, while they also contain a few very fine 

 larch trees girthing up to ten feet at breast-height. Among the latter 

 those known locally as ' the Twelve Apostles ' are splendid specimens of 

 the growth of larch under favourable conditions. 



None of the 35,054 acres of woods and plantations in Cumberland 

 are owned by the Crown. They are all to be found on private estates, 

 and consist chiefly of ornamental woodlands near the residences of the 

 landowners, of game covers, or else of woods planted for the two-fold 

 purpose of growing timber for profit and of giving shelter to the lower 

 pastures in windswept localities. Along the outer edges on the wind- 

 ward side of such plantations the growth of larch and pine is exceed- 

 ingly poor, being dwarfish, stunted, and bent by the wind. But under 

 the shelter of the outer fringe the growth of the conifers has usually 

 been satisfactory, and some of the plantations (chiefly of larch, with 

 pine and spruce fir), formed in blocks varying up to about 200 acres in 

 extent about the middle of last century, have yielded very satisfactory 

 returns both directly in timber and indirectly in improved grazing. 

 Formed on land of inferior quality and situated at a considerable eleva- 

 tion worth in fee-simple only about i an acre larch plantations 

 (with pine, and spruce on the poorer and moister parts), then made at 

 a cost of 2 an acre (on hillsides having good natural drainage), have in 

 some instances, where care was bestowed not only on their formation 

 but also on their subsequent treatment, yielded remunerative thinnings 

 almost every year (the thinnings being done in annual sections, and 

 repeated about every five years or so) from about seven years after plant- 

 ing ; while the crop still on the ground, and practically mature and 

 ready for felling whenever clearance may seem to the proprietor desir- 

 able, is worth from 50 to 60 an acre, according to the local market 

 demand. Though such crops, of course, show neither the same large 

 cubic contents nor the same money value per acre as if the plantations 



1 Nicolson and Burn, op. cit. ii. 80. 

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