FORESTRY 139 



Forest's history, and it suited the book of those 

 who opposed the Crown, in all it ever had done 

 or proposed to do in the way of management, 

 to be able to argue that since fine woods had 

 grown in the past without any assistance at all, 

 the proper course to adopt was to put a stop to 

 all forestry or cultivation, and let the Forest 

 take care of itself. And the Act of 1877 was 

 intentionally framed on lines devised to fetter 

 and impede everything in the way of forestry 

 as much as possible indeed. Its principal pro- 

 moters openly admitted as much. 



Leaving out the open heaths covered with 

 gorse, and groups of stunted trees of various 

 kinds, and, in places, with fine attempts at a 

 natural regeneration of Scotch fir, both valuable, 

 and interesting to watch, we have first of all 

 some 5300 acres of old woods, all planted before 

 the times of Charles I, and many of them going 

 back to much earlier days. Then there are 

 woods, mostly of pure oak, of dates varying 

 from two hundred to one hundred years old, 

 covering about 7000 acres, and a balance of 

 younger plantations from seventy to forty years 

 of age totalling about 10,000 acres roughly. 

 These between them make up all of the New 

 Forest that is devoted to the culture of trees. 

 As to the history of the woods in the last 



