68 SOME TYPES OF BKITISH WOODLANDS. 



readers may raise the cry of "theoretical speculation" a 

 cry so frequently heard when people do not understand a 

 subject, or do not care to face the inconvenience of a new 

 departure it will be useful to fortify what has been said 

 by producing an example in point. It is, alas ! a negative 

 example, but it will serve its purpose. The example is the 

 " Forest of Dean." 



Any person with a pair of eyes, who visited the Dean eight 

 or ten years ago, and made his way across the several woods, 

 found on by far the greater part of the area a thin crop of 

 oaks from eighty to ninety years old, of poor height growth, 

 with rounded or flat tops, and the branches coming down low, 

 so that only clear boles of small length were formed. Looking 

 down on the ground, our observer would see the soil covered 

 with a matting of grass and weeds, overrun with brambles, 

 etc. Presently the wanderer would probably come across a 

 solitary old oak or two of magnificent dimensions, towering 

 high over the eighty to ninety years old crop ; the idea would 

 at once cross his mind that the flat-topped younger generation 

 could never grow to the height of the few remaining old trees, 

 and he would be sure to ask, " What has brought about this 

 change ? " The answer is, " The nineteenth-century foresters 

 in charge of the Dean have ruined the former fertility of the 

 soil by trying to grow oak pure beyond youth, by excessive 

 thinning, and by unrestricted grazing." 



An enquiry into the past history of the forest has revealed the 

 fact that, up to the end of the eighteenth century, the Dean carried 

 a mixed crop of oak and beech in the proportion of one oak to 

 about two beeches ; under these conditions the fine oaks of 

 enormous size were produced which made the forest renowned, 

 and provided large quantities of first-class timber for the " walls 

 of oak " of Old England. 



This fine crop of timber was cut early in the nineteenth 

 century, with the exception of about 500 acres, which were 

 cut in 1852 1853, yielding an average of 154 cubic feet 

 of timber per tree, according to quarter-girth measurement. 



