202 
NATURE NOTES 
Forestry AND Agriculture. — We all knowthat our English- 
Scottish King was a great scholar, but I do not think it is 
generally known that he was a forester ; so the following, taken 
from Schlich’s “ Manual of Forestry,” vol. iv., “ Forest Pro- 
tection,” by W. R. Fisher, will, I think, interest some of the 
readers of Nature Notes, and what is further said of the 
British gamekeeper’s ways will also interest Selbornians. 
At p. 3 : — “ in England, James the First was the first 
monarch who considered forest trees of more importance than 
game : he obtained much unpopularity by enclosing part of 
Windsor Forest, and put an end to the pollarding of maiden oak- 
trees, which were lopped in winter to enable the deer to browse 
off the bark of the lopped branches. None but pollard oak 
have been lopped in this way since 1608, and most of the hollow 
old oak pollards in Windsor Forest were in existence before 
that date Rabbits have increased in the most 
alarming manner during the last twenty years, and have 
destroyed the valuable undergrowth over large areas of the 
forest. They render the reproduction of the trees exceedingly 
difficult and expensive, and altogether nullify the proper 
management of the large area of oak forest planted for the 
nation in 1816-25. Such wholesale destruction of valuable 
woods by rabbits would not be allowed in any other European 
Crown forest 
“ The preservation of birds useful in forestry and agriculture 
has been furthered by the naturalists of different European 
countries and by the enactment of special laws. At the same 
time the British gamekeeper, by indiscriminately destroying 
birds of prey and the smaller carnivora, has allowed rabbits and 
wood pigeons to increase so enormously, so as to become a 
veritable scourge to forestry and agriculture, to say nothing of 
even greater damage from mice and voles.” 
Giles A. Daubeny. 
Gidley, Chagfovd, Dartmoor , June 2, 1899. 
BROADBAND IN WINTER-TIME. 
[CCORDING to the calendar it was spring, but judging 
by the weather it was winter surely enough. At any 
rate on March 26, 1899, two naturalists left Kings 
Lynn by a train timed to start at 8 a.m., and to 
arrive at one of the stations from which the Norfolk Broads are 
available, at something before eleven, but as a matter of fact the 
journey, which is approximately fifty miles, took nearer four 
hours than three, owing to the delays caused by the snow. A 
friend we met in the train, who once upon a time was connected 
with the Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union, could not understand 
what was taking us to the Broads on such a day. Were we 
