FORESTRY 175 



Ridge, give the lie to any such tale; but in the 

 case of Denny the Commissioners went further, 

 and enclosed (but without taking out the decay- 

 ing trees, as should have been done) a much 

 larger area of old oak and beech woods. 



The natural regeneration that has sprung up 

 around these old patriarchs, in every space open 

 enough to admit the sun and air, constitutes as 

 fine a specimen of the self-reproduction of a de- 

 caying old wood as could possibly be seen in- 

 complete, it is true, for lack of the removal here 

 and there of the most hopelessly decadent trees, 

 in order that the growth of the young scions 

 may replace them ; but still enough to show to 

 any observant members of the public how easy it 

 is to perpetuate those beautiful old open woods 

 which he sees hastening to decay before his very 

 eyes. 



In making these plantations between 1850 

 and 1875, a fault was made which is very apparent 

 now. The object and reason, even at that later 

 date, for making them was, first, foremost, and 

 all the time, to produce oak timber. 



But only a little soil, comparatively speaking, in 

 the New Forest will grow oak. The mistake was in 

 making large plantations. But the Act under 

 which they were made provided that they should 

 be of no less size than 300 acres, so that there 



