338 
The Principles of Forestry. 
purpose of building; thus it has been laid down that horse-chestnuts, limes, 
birch, beech, asp, walnut trees, and the like, may under such circumstances be 
deemed timber, and are therefore protected by the law as such. It has been 
determined that in the county of York birch trees are timber, because they 
are used in that country for building sheep-houses, cottages, and such mean 
buildings." 
" When beech is admitted to be timber by the custom of the country, the 
general rule of law applicable to timber trees in general attaches upon it, so 
as to give it the properties and privileges of timber at twenty years' growth." 
These extracts clearly define the meaning of the word timber, 
and all that it seems necessary to add is, that in practice all 
kinds of trees which have reached a measure of six inches quarter- 
girth under the bark are treated as timber, and in the following 
pages I imply this definition. 
It must not be supposed that forestry, in the sense in which 
I have defined it, is an unknown study in England, or that the 
value of the knowledge and its application has been altogether 
ignored. True, it has greatly fallen into abeyance, and private 
landowners have for many years jiractically ceased to apply the 
principles of forestry to their woodland areas ; but this has 
arisen through lack of requirement, brought about by a long- 
continued era of agricultural prosperity, which led to the com- 
plete disaftbrestment of large tracts for purposes of cultivation 
in various parts of the country. This suspension of principles, 
so to speak, has been negatively proved by the fact that, owing 
to a long era of depression, the necessity for its resuscitation has 
been so extensively recognised. 
I use the term " private landowners " to distinguish them 
from the Crown lands presided over by the Commissioners of 
Woods and Forests. The areas under their management, espe- 
cially the young oak plantations, stand out from the mass of 
general woodland as examples of the application of those 
branches which serve to make up the term '* true forestry." 
Public opinion, so long ago as 17G3, when peace was con- 
cluded in Paris, began to express itself with regard to the 
rapid depletion of oak timber caused by the immense drain upon 
our resources for the building of war vessels. This culminated in 
the appointment of Commissioners to inquire into the state and 
condition of the woods, forests, and land revenues of the Crown ; 
who presented their first report in January 1787. This, how- 
ever, was purely 2:ireliminary in its character. In their second 
report, issued in December of the same year, they say : — 
"It was our intention that the woods and forests should have been the 
subject of our second report; because the abuses which wo have discovered 
to e.xist in tliat department, and the importance of preserving and protecting 
those nurseries of timber for the support of the naval strength of this king- 
dom, ieemed to demand from us the earliest attention. But wo found it 
