CONSERVATION AND REPLENISHMENT. 197 



'ing beechnuts and acorns, and by destroying moles and 

 mice. — De Dantske Skove, p. 12. Megusher is of the same 

 opinion, and adds that swine destroy injurious insects and 

 their larvae. — Memoria, &c., p. 233. 



" Beckstein computes that a park of 2,500 acres, con- 

 taining 250 acres of marsh, 250 of fields and meadows, and 

 the remaining 2,000 of wood, may keep 364 deer of dif- 

 ferent species, 47 wild boars, 200 hares, 100 rabbits, and 

 an indefinite number of pheasants. These animals would 

 require, in winter, 123,000 pounds of hay, and 22,000 

 pounds of potatoes, besides what they would pick up 

 themselves. The natural forest most thickly peopled with 

 wild animals, would not, in temperate climates, contain, 

 upon the average, one-tenth of these numbers to the same 

 extent of surface." 



Other changes consequent upon the progress of the 

 nations, affected the forests, tending generally to the 

 devastation of them, and calling forth warnings, counsels, 

 and protests. 



A change of habit in regard to hunting, and the neces- 

 sity felt from time to time raise money by the sale of timber, 

 led to great changes. I find it alleged that the gradual 

 destruction of forests after the Eeformation may be attri- 

 buted to the following, amongst other causes — the confis- 

 cation of Church property, the diminished habit of hunting, 

 the extermination of wild animals, the unusual demand for 

 timber, the disturbances during the civil wars, and gene- 

 rally to the progress of civilisation. 



In an edition of Evelyn's Silva, published in York in 

 1786, the editor. Dr. Hunter, says in a note on this sub- 

 ject :— 



" In order to trace the history of the decay of our forest 

 trees, it will be necessary to remark that the first attack 

 made upon them of any material consequence was in the 

 twenty-seventh year of the reign of Henry VIII., when 

 that monarch seized upon the church-lands, and converted 

 them, together with their woods, to his own use, Euinous 



