FORESTRY 145 



the better cultivation of New Forest timber, yet 

 I think I have quoted enough, and tried my 

 readers' patience enough, to prove my points : (1) 

 that the timber cultivation in New Forest was 

 of very ancient date provided for by legislation 

 at that date ; (2) that it was an erroneous assertion, 

 so freely made in 1875, that all Crown cultivation 

 of timber in New Forest started with a hard and 

 fast line with the Act of 1698. 



What, then, follows from this? Why, that 

 the theory that the Forest, if left to itself, will 

 successfully and continuously produce and re- 

 produce fine timber, and maintain its present 

 stock thereof, is a hopeless fallacy. Our ancestors 

 knew this, and they energetically encoppiced 

 and protected their woods, as I have shown. 

 They have left to us such beautiful examples as 

 Ridley Wood, Mark Ash, and others now in 

 the last stages of old age. Those who are tree 

 lovers know it, as they wander through such 

 woods as Fair Crop, Bratley, and the like, and 

 look on a forest of rapidly decaying trees above 

 their heads, and at their feet a thicket of young 

 oaks and beeches-, gnawed to their death, at two 

 feet from the ground, by cattle and ponies, but 

 abundant enough between every group of ancient 

 trees now, alas, all too far apart to regenerate 

 the whole wood, if only the protection of a 



