Early Interest in Forestry. 315 
for the sake of the chase—the same medieval policy 
which animates at present the forest policy of the State 
of New York. 
The woods outside the ‘forests’, which had mainly 
served for the raising of hogs, and for domestic needs, 
experienced at various times unusual reduction by 
fire. General Monk, among others, laid waste large 
areas on the Scottish borderland. 
The first serious inroads occurred in Henry VIII’s 
time, when he seized the church lands for his own use 
and turned them into cash. James I had fostered 
colonization schemes, especially in Ireland, which 
reduced the forest area, while Charles I, always in 
need of cash, alienated many of the crown forests, 
besides extorting money through the forest courts. 
On the other hand Henry VIII and James I had 
attempted to encourage planting for utility. During 
the Revolution, beginning in 1642, and during Crom- 
well’s reign a licentious devastation of the confiscated 
or mortgaged noblemen’s woods took place. 
Finally, under Charles II, the needs for the royal 
navy forced attention to the reduction of wood supplies, 
and as a result of the agitation to encourage the 
growth of timber, a member of the newly formed 
Royal Society was deputed to prepare an essay, which, 
published in 1662, has become the classic work of 
English forest literature, namely John Evelyn’s Sylva, 
or “A Discourse on Forest Trees,’ which has experi- 
enced eleven editions. It should, however, be mentioned 
that an earlier writer, whom Evelyn often quotes, 
Tuffer, before the reign of Henry VIII, in 1562, pub- 
lished his “Five Hundred Points of Husbandry,” a 
