293 



ENGLISH COPPICES AND COPSEWOODS, 



The more one studies the ancient laws and conditions 

 affecting the forests and woodlands and the production 

 of wood and timber throughout England during the thirteenth 

 to the seventeenth centuries, the more does the fact seem to 

 stand out with unmistakable clearness that the great 

 national system of arboriculture — namely, the method of 

 coppice or copse, either purely in the form of simple coppice or 

 elseconsistingof standard timber trees growing over an under- 

 wood which was regularly coppiced by being cut only at 

 comparatively short intervals — reached its highest technical 

 development during the first half of the seventeenth century. 

 Since then it has undoubtedly declined. This decline, as 

 regards attention to the careful management of the woodlands, 

 can easily be accounted for by the action of various specific 

 causes at different times. The discovery of coal and of its 

 uses revolutionised English domestic affairs, and was one of 

 the essential factors in evolving the vast commercial 

 prosperity which would not have been possible if England 

 had continued dependent upon her woodlands for supplies 

 of fuel and firewood. During the last hundred years 

 one of the most important of these causes has been the 

 remarkable improvement in transport by land and sea ; 

 while in more recent years the three chief factors militating 

 against the more intensive treatment of coppices and 

 copsewoods have been the reduction in the market rate 

 obtainable for small wood owing to the use of substitutes of one 

 kind or another, the dearth and the increasing cost of labour 

 in nearly all the rural tracts, and lastly, though not least, the 

 ravages of ground game both as regards underwoods and 

 young timber trees. 



Apart from the beams and scantlings needed for building- 

 boats and ships, and making bridges, and for internal work 



