XVI 
Appendix Nu. 1. 
Society, he referred to the bird-trappers, and said that it seemed to him 
that some amendment in the law was required. As to the Wild Birds Pro¬ 
tection Act, it was simply a farce. Bird-catchers came into the Forest in 
close-time, and nothing could be done to them, because if they were 
caught they would declare that they were catching birds which were not 
protected. The only way to put a stop to this kind of thing would be to 
have no exceptions whatever, but make it penal to catch any birds at all, 
and to give powers to the police to confiscate the bird-trapper’s nets and 
cages when any man was seen with them at improper seasons. [Cheers.] 
Mr. White, referring to a statement made by Mr. Varley that he had 
planted Nitella in some ponds at Whipps Cross, condemned the intro¬ 
duction of non-native plants, and went on to say that from some of the 
speeches made that evening they would come to the conclusion that they 
ought to protect the majority of creatures, but to destroy some others. 
He argued against this view, and in favour of giving Nature full and 
free play. 
Mr. Godwin remarked that Mr. Harting had seemed to be in some 
doubt as to whether drainage was or was not injurious to the forest trees. 
Perhaps some botanical member present could state the effect of drainage 
upon the growth of trees. 
Dr. Cooke replied that there was no doubt but that the presence of 
stagnant water, water standing round the roots of trees, was injurious to 
forest vegetation. But unless the trees were growing in a water-logged 
soil, his experience was that they were not injured. The soil might be as 
damp and as heavy as you please ; so long as it lay on a slope, so that 
the water did not become stagnant about the roots of the trees, no 
amount of moisture was injurious. And that brought them back to the 
suggestion of Mr. Harting—suppose the Conservators were doing this for 
the benefit of the trees ? They wished the trees to be better than they 
were a thousand years ago. It was supposed that at that time the forest 
trees grew pretty successfully—[laughter]—in Epping Forest when there 
was no deep drainage; and they had continued to do so down to our 
own time. It was only lately that the trees had got into such bad habits 
as to require under-draining to make them grow better. [Laughter.] 
Beally the fault was that Conservators of such places wanted to make 
them into parks. [Hear, hear.] It was against that he protested. He 
liked wild Nature. [Cheers.] 
Dr. Pearce spoke of the process of under-drainage having been stopped 
in Kensington Gardens because it had been found that it killed the trees. 
[Laughter.] 
Mr. Unwin thought that the Conservators were not the Philistines that 
some would make out. They were open to reason, and would be willing 
to consider anything that the Society could put before them. How best 
could they put something before them ? He thought they should ask 
their members who were specialists, Mr. Harting, Dr. Cooke, and one of 
their botanists, to put down, in a short concise paper, what they required 
