PREFACE 
‘FOR it has not been the late increase of 
Shipping alone, the multiplication of Glass-works, 
Iron-Furnaces, and the like, from whence this 
im-politic diminution of our Timber has pro- 
ceeded ; but from the disproportionate spreading 
of Tillage, caused through that prodigious havock 
made by such as lately professing themselves 
against Root and Branch (either to be re-imbours’d 
of their Aoly purchases, or for some other sordid 
respect) were tempted, not only to fell and cut 
down, but utterly to grub up, demolish, and 
raze, as it were, all those many goodly Woods, 
and Forests, which our more prudent Ancestors 
left standing, for the Ornament, and service of 
their Country... . 
‘To attend now a spontaneous supply of 
these decay’d Mazerials (which is the vulgar, 
and natural way) would cost (besides the Jn- 
closure) some entire Ages repose of the Plow. 
