296 OUR FORESTS AND WOODLANDS 
be little doubt that love of sport often saved 
many a remnant of the ancient woods, which, but 
for that, would probably have been ‘wasted’ or 
cleared when the rage was on for clearing wood- 
lands, and converting them into arable and pastural 
land. Even in the fourteenth century it had 
already been found necessary to enclose portions 
of the royal forests for their ‘encoppicement’ and 
regeneration, to obviate great damage from deer 
and ground game; and later on, during James I.’s 
reign, the ploughing of the land and the sowing 
of acorns was ordered in the New Forest for im- 
proving the crop and increasing the number of 
oak in the woods. But, even earlier than that, 
Tusser had written in his rhyming book on Five 
Hundreth Pointes of Good Husbandrie (1573)— 
“IF Cattel, or Cony may enfer fo crop, 
Pouns oak is in danger of fosing Bis fop.” 
Against such damage, or that done by deer, 
trees can be protected by a casing of wire-netting 
or by having thorns tied with wire round the lower 
part of the stem. But these are methods only 
applicable to parks and the ornamental portions 
of estates, and are not capable of being carried out 
on any extensive scale in the woodlands, 
