FORESTRY 173 



were planted more on the lines laid down by Mr. 

 Brown of Arniston, the right hand man of Mr. 

 Kennedy, Commissioner of Woods in the years 

 1849-51, and the cause of that great revolution 

 which nearly broke up the Office of Woods, by 

 uniting against it the whole force of the deputy 

 surveyors (then a numerous body) and all the 

 local officers in the service all over the country. 

 It ended in the removal of Mr. Kennedy from 

 his office, by Mr. Gladstone, then Chancellor of 

 the Exchequer. 



However, the principles of Mr. Brown endured, 

 and the plantations of that date were planted 

 with oak where the soil was good enough, with 

 nurses in alternate rows up to four feet apart 

 all over, and, where the soil was hopelessly poor, 

 with Scotch fir only. Larch was largely used for 

 the nurses, and did very well up to a certain 

 age ; but after about fifty years of growth, it 

 begins to fail in the New Forest soil, and soon 

 deteriorates. On the whole, the scheme paid 

 well; the millions of larch and Scotch fir that 

 have been cut out of Islands Thorns and Oakley 

 plantations to name only two have brought in 

 money enough to repay the cost of the planting 

 several times over, or to produce enough cash to 

 yield a good interest on the capital expended, and 

 to leave a thriving crop of oak on the ground. 



