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 FOX, BADGER, HEDGEHOG, AND WEASEL.
 
 THE 
 COUNTRYSIDE SERIES 
 
 BY ARTHUR O. COOKE 
 
 > <& <?<> & 
 
 AN 
 ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 LONDON 
 
 HENRYFROWDE 
 HODDER& STOUGHTON
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP. PAGE 
 
 I. THE FOREST . . . '" .3 
 
 II. THE "GREAT OAK" 8 
 
 JII. How THE "GREAT OAK" GREW . . 14 
 
 IV. YOUNG OAKS 21 
 
 V. THE HOUSE BY THE RIVER . . . .26 
 
 VI. EVERGREENS . . . . . .30 
 
 VII. BEECHES ... ... 40 
 
 VIII. A SQUIRREL . . . . .44 
 
 IX. TREE-FELLING . . . ! r . . . .52 
 
 X. A ROMAN ROAD . , . . .58 
 
 XI. A COPPICE . . . ' :. . .64 
 
 XII. SOME FRIENDS AND FOES . . . .69 
 
 XIII. OUR LAST DAY . 74
 
 A ROAD IN THE FOREST. 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE FOREST 
 
 I WONDER how many of you have seen a 
 forest. Some may have done so ; but others, 
 I feel sure, have never seen one, for there are 
 very few large forests in England now only 
 three or four. Perhaps some of you who live 
 in London have seen Epping Forest, which is 
 one of the most beautiful in England. 
 
 Nearly two thousand years ago almost the 
 whole of England-was one great forest. There 
 were hardly any towns, and there were few 
 fields or meadows. Here and there among the 
 trees of the forest were small villages. In some 
 
 3 
 
 2062164
 
 4 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 of these the people lived in rude huts made by 
 twisting together the branches of trees ; in 
 others the only dwellings were holes in the 
 ground, covered with roofs of branches and 
 earth. 
 
 The people who lived in these forest villages 
 had very few crops. Some of them cultivated 
 a little corn, but most of them lived by hunting. 
 There were plenty of wild animals in the 
 forest which surrounded them ; there were 
 deer, wild cattle and pigs, and also bears and 
 wolves. The people lived on the flesh of 
 these animals, and clothed themselves in their 
 skins. Some of them kept a few small cattle 
 and also herds of pigs. 
 
 Then, as you know, the Romans came and 
 conquered England. They taught the natives 
 many things that they did not know before. 
 They taught them to make roads, to build 
 houses of stone, and also to grow many crops. 
 Little by little the forests were cut down 
 to make room for fields and meadows. The 
 wild animals became fewer and the people 
 hunted less. They kept more cattle and grew 
 more crops ; they became a " pastoral " and 
 * 4 agricultural " people. 
 
 Some people think that now we have not
 
 THE FOREST 5 
 
 enough forests in England. It is certain that 
 we have not enough to supply us with all the 
 wood we need. We are compelled to buy a 
 great deal of wood from abroad wood for 
 building houses, for making furniture, for the 
 masts of ships, and for many other purposes. 
 
 It happens that one of the largest and most 
 beautiful forests in England is not very far 
 from a place where I often stay, a place called 
 Willow Farm. Perhaps some of you have 
 read about Willow Farm in another book. 
 If you like to fancy that you are there with me 
 now, we might pay a visit to the forest. It 
 is rather too far off for a walk, but not too far 
 for a drive. We will ask Mr Hammond, the 
 farmer, to lend us the pony- cart and the brown 
 pony Billy for the trip. 
 
 So one morning, after breakfasting early 
 that we may have a nice long day in the 
 forest, we set off. 
 
 The road winds in and out among fields 
 and farmhouses for several miles, and we pass 
 through one or two villages. Sometimes we 
 go up a steep hiH, and then we get out and 
 walk to make it easier for Billy, who is getting 
 rather old and fat. Sometimes we have a 
 hill to go down ; that is almost as slow work
 
 6 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 as going up, for Billy is very careful and very 
 much afraid of falling down if he goes too 
 quickly. It is a good thing that we started 
 early. 
 
 At last, when we reach the top of a long hill, 
 we see before us a great mass of trees, which 
 stretches away as far as the eye can reach. 
 This is the forest, and very soon we are driving 
 along in the cool shade between the trees. 
 
 There is no hedge nor fence on either side 
 of the road, and every now and then we see 
 a tempting footpath winding among the trees. 
 Before we say good-bye to the forest we will 
 stroll along more than one of these paths, but 
 not just now. Billy is tired with his journey, 
 and we must take him to a stable where he can 
 rest and have some food. In a few minutes 
 we come to a large house at the roadside, 
 which is called the Court House Inn. 
 
 When we have asked the ostler to feed the 
 pony and take care of him until the evening, 
 we will go inside the inn for something to eat 
 ourselves before taking a stroll in the forest. 
 The room into which we are shown is very 
 large, and at one end is an old wooden plat- 
 form. A railing divides this platform from 
 the rest of the room, and behind the railing
 
 THE FOREST 7 
 
 are large wooden seats ; one seat in the middle 
 is very high, like a great arm-chair. Hanging 
 on the walls of the room are many heads of 
 deer. These are the heads of deer killed in the 
 forest years ago ; they have hung on the walls 
 
 THE OLD COURT HOUSE. 
 
 so long that on some of them there is no fur 
 left, only the bare bones of the skull. 
 
 This old house has not always been an inn. 
 Centuries ago the Forest Court was held here. 
 As more and more fields were made in England 
 the forest grew smaller, and as the forests grew 
 smaller the deer and wolves and wild pigs
 
 8 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 became fewer. The kings and great men, 
 who loved hunting, began to fear that there 
 would soon be none for them to hunt. To 
 prevent this the kings made strict laws to 
 guard the wild animals that still remained. 
 
 By these laws only the kings themselves, 
 or the nobles and great men to whom they 
 gave permission, were allowed to hunt in the 
 forests. If anyone else was found hunting, 
 or even disturbing or frightening the deer by 
 cutting wood in the forests, he was severely 
 punished by the Forest Courts. This inn 
 was once the Court House for our forest ; 
 in this room, where we are quietly eating our 
 lunch to-day, many a man has been punished 
 for some crime against the Forest Laws. 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE " GREAT OAK 
 
 THREE roads meet outside the Court House 
 Inn, and there are paths which lead into the 
 forest in all directions. By and by we will 
 follow a path, but just now I want to take you 
 a little way down one of the roads.
 
 THE " GREAT OAK " 9 
 
 The ground under the trees on each side 
 of the road is covered with soft turf, and in 
 many places there is beautiful green fern or 
 bracken as high as your shoulders. All round 
 we hear the tinkling of bells ; some are quite 
 close to us and others sound far off among 
 the trees. They are sheep -bells, for sheep 
 are feeding all about upon the soft sweet grass. 
 The bells keep the flocks together, for the sheep 
 of one flock soon learn to know the sound of 
 the bell hung round their leader's neck. 
 
 Most of the trees just here are oaks, but 
 there are a few fine beeches. Dotted about, 
 too, are a great many hollies, for this part of 
 the forest is the Holly Wood. Presently we 
 will look at a beech and at a holly too ; but 
 first I want to show you this very large oak, 
 which stands in a clear space a little away 
 from other trees. 
 
 It is not very tall ; there are many taller 
 oaks in the forest, but none have so thick 
 a trunk. If you would like to know how thick 
 the trunk is we can soon find out ; I have a 
 measuring-tape in my pocket, which is marked 
 with feet and inches. Will you stand close to 
 the tree and hold one end of the tape against 
 the trunk five feet from the ground ? I will
 
 10 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 walk round the tree, unwinding the tape 
 as I go. 
 
 When the tape is stretched tightly round 
 the trunk and I have brought my end to yours, 
 we read the figures on the tape. It has taken 
 forty-four feet and eight inches of tape to go 
 round the trunk ; forty-four feet eight inches 
 is the " girth " of the tree. From side to side 
 the tree is about fifteen feet thick. 
 
 That is a great size even for an oak, and 
 there are very few larger oaks than this one 
 in all England. The tree must be very old, 
 and some people would tell you that it is more 
 than a thousand years of age. If it is not 
 really quite as old as that, I daresay it has 
 stood here eight or nine hundred years, which 
 is a long time for a tree to live. 
 
 Besides its great girth, there are other signs 
 of age about this oak. Let us stand a little 
 way off and look up at it. On this June day 
 there are many leaves on it, but none on the 
 topmost branches. These branches stand out 
 quite bare above the green leaves and look 
 very like the horns of deer ; the tree is called 
 " stag-headed." Though living still it is 
 growing feeble, and has no longer the strength 
 to produce leaves on its upper branches.
 
 THE " GREAT OAK 
 
 11 
 
 The bark which covers the trunk and large 
 boughs is brown and rough, and is split all 
 over by long deep cracks into which you can 
 put your finger. On the trunk are several 
 
 THE "GREAT OAK." 
 
 great rough lumps called " burrs " ; they are 
 another sign of age. 
 
 The leaves are something like the shape of 
 a kite ; they are narrow where they join the 
 twigs, grow broader towards the middle, and 
 become narrow again at the end. These leaves 
 grow direct from the twigs ; they have no 
 " leaf -stem " of their own. When this old 
 tree bore acorns they had short stems called
 
 12 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 u peduncles," for this is a " pedunculate " 
 oak. 
 
 Other oaks grow in some parts of England 
 which are called " sessile " oaks. Their leaves 
 have leaf-stems, while the acorns have none, 
 but grow in clusters, " sessile," or " seated " 
 
 BRANCH OF "PEDUNCULATE" OAK. 
 
 on the twigs. Nearly all the oaks in our 
 forest are pedunculate. 
 
 Although the trunk of this old oak is so 
 thick it is not more than twelve or fifteen 
 feet high. At that height from the ground 
 the tree divides into several great branches. 
 Some of these spread out above our heads ; 
 others have grown upwards in a slanting 
 direction. All are a good deal curved. Some 
 have evidently been broken off, for we can 
 see their stumps left on the tree. 
 
 This is the shape in which a pedunculate
 
 THE " GREAT OAK " 13 
 
 oak grows naturally ; it has a short thick 
 trunk, which soon divides into branches more 
 or less curved in shape. Until recently this 
 was the shape in which the oak was most 
 useful. Why ? Because, when all our ships 
 were made of wood, a great many curved and 
 crooked pieces of timber called " knees " were 
 required for building a ship's inner frame- 
 work the part which you do not see when 
 looking at a ship from outside. These knees 
 were easily made from the curved and crooked 
 branches of an oak like this, and also from 
 the great " root-arms " the upper parts of 
 the roots which we can see branching from the 
 trunk above the ground. 
 
 But nowadays very few ships are made 
 of wood ; they are nearly all built of iron and 
 steel. Very few crooked knees are required. 
 Instead of these, long beams of oak are often 
 needed for many purposes. Sometimes a 
 beam is wanted thirty or forty feet long and 
 quite straight. 
 
 Look again at the old oak. It is, of course, 
 far too old and decayed now to make good 
 timber. Let us suppose, however, that it is 
 a fine healthy tree, fit to cut down and use 
 for timber. Can you see any part of it that
 
 14 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 would make a beam thirty feet long and quite 
 straight ? 
 
 The trunk certainly will not do so ; that is 
 only about fifteen feet high. The branches 
 are so crooked and curved that the longest of 
 them has not more than ten or twelve feet of 
 straight wood. Where is our long straight 
 oak-beam to come from ? Presently we will 
 see if we can find it ; but first let us rest a 
 little beneath the branches of our oak and 
 think how it grew. 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 HOW THE " GREAT OAK " GREW 
 
 EIGHT or nine hundred years ago a fine oak 
 stood not far from where this old oak stands 
 to-day. Nearly every year it bore a crop of 
 fruit thousands of acorns. In the autumn, 
 when the acorns were ripe and began to fall, 
 large herds of pigs were driven into the forest to 
 feed on them. Pigs are now generally fed on 
 meal, potatoes and milk. In those days there 
 was but little meal or milk to spare for pigs, 
 and there was not a single potato in all England.
 
 HOW THE " GREAT OAK " GREW 15 
 
 One fine October day a herd of pigs was 
 searching for acorns among the grass and 
 fallen leaves beneath the oak. There was a 
 fine plump acorn lying just in the way of a 
 hungry pig, but it was hidden by a dead 
 leaf, and so it happened that the pig did not 
 see it. He set his foot on the leaf as he 
 passed and pressed the acorn 
 down into the soft damp ground. 
 
 For six or seven months the 
 acorn lay in the ground. Inside 
 it was the kernel or seed ; this 
 was the same shape as the 
 acorn, but smaller, with a rough 
 brown coat. By and by a tiny 
 thread-like root grew from the 
 smaUer pointed end of the seed ; ACORN SHOOTING - 
 the outer shell of the acorn split in half, and 
 the tiny thread came through. 
 
 I do not know how this particular acorn 
 had been lying ; perhaps on its side, or with 
 the pointed end turned upwards towards the 
 surface of the ground. But as soon as this 
 little root appeared, it, i.e. the root, at once 
 turned downwards and began to grow straight 
 into the earth. It was the little " tap-root " 
 of our oak.
 
 16 
 
 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 When the tap-root was about three inches 
 
 long something else appeared from the small 
 
 &, end of the acorn a tiny shoot. 
 
 ^-^ . ^SaSScr, <l 
 
 The little tap-root had turned down 
 into the ground, but the little 
 shoot grew up towards light and 
 air. It was to be our great oak's 
 trunk. 
 
 Can you think why the root ap- 
 peared and grew down into the 
 ground before the young stem came 
 from the acorn ? If the stem had 
 appeared first, or as soon as the 
 root, the little tree would have 
 grown top-heavy, and would per- 
 haps have been blown over by 
 the wind. This did not happen, 
 because the root came first and 
 had taken a firm hold of the 
 earth before the stem began to 
 grow. 
 
 At two years old the root was 
 about eighteen inches long and the 
 stem six inches high. Buds had 
 appeared on the stem, and these 
 
 opened in the spring and produced leaves. 
 
 From between the leaves fresh shoots grew, 
 
 TWO-YEAR 
 OLD OAK.
 
 AN OAK IN WINTER. 
 
 THE SAME OAK IN SUMMER.
 
 HOW THE " GREAT OAK " GREW 17 
 
 which by and by became the crooked branches 
 of the oak. 
 
 Meanwhile, deep in the ground, the tap- 
 root grew longer and stronger ; other roots 
 grew round it in the earth below the tree. 
 When high winds blew the tree swayed to 
 and fro, but it did not fall, for the strong tap- 
 root and the other roots held it fast. 
 
 The roots drank in the moisture from the 
 soil. This moisture was not pure water ; 
 in it were dissolved various things which the 
 tree needed for food. A tree gets much of 
 its food through its roots, and they can only 
 take in liquids. 
 
 Have you ever sucked up water through 
 a straw ? Perhaps so ; it was quite easy, 
 was it not ? Well, have you sucked up a 
 lump of sugar in the same way ? " Why, no," 
 you say, " that would be impossible ! " Are 
 you quite sure of that ? Dissolve your lump 
 of sugar in a glass of water or a cup of tea ; 
 now if you suck up the tea you have the sugar 
 as well. 
 
 That is how our oak obtained food from 
 the soil. The water carrying the needed food 
 flowed upwards through the roots, and through 
 the trunk and branches till it reached the
 
 18 
 
 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 leaves. All the food from the soil went to the 
 leaves. 
 
 The leaves themselves were busy in another 
 way. They gathered from the air a certain 
 part of it which the tree needed. They mixed 
 this with the substances brought up in the 
 water from the roots ; then they sent this 
 
 mixture back into 
 the branches and 
 trunk as food for 
 the tree. Before 
 the first leaves 
 appeared on the 
 little tree it lived 
 on the store of 
 food contained in 
 the acorn from 
 
 SAP 
 
 WOOD 
 
 BARK 
 
 SECTION OF OAK TRUNK. 
 
 which it grew. 
 This food made the oak grow in height and 
 in thickness ; it made wood. Each year a 
 new layer of wood grew just beneath the skin 
 all round the tree. When quite new this 
 wood was very soft and damp ; it was " sap- 
 wood." As other layers grew over it, it 
 became harder and drier it became " heart- 
 wood." It is this heart- wood which is the 
 valuable wood of a tree.
 
 HOW THE " GREAT OAK " GREW 19 
 
 While the oak was quite young the stem 
 was covered with a soft and tender skin. It 
 was many years before this gave place to the 
 bark which we see upon its 
 trunk and branches to-day. 
 
 A great deal of water 
 was drawn in by the roots 
 of the oak. What be- 
 came of it ? Much of this 
 water was " transpired," or 
 breathed out, into the air 
 by the leaves. More than 
 two hundred times its own 
 weight of water may pass 
 through an oak in a year. 
 W T here there are many . 
 
 * 1. OAK GALL. 2. SECTION 
 
 trees there is always mois- SHOVVINGLARVALCHAM- 
 
 . BEK. 3. LARVA. 4. 
 
 ture in the air ; houses IMAGO. 
 
 ITI 1 and 2 natural size. 
 
 surrounded by trees are 3 an d 4 much en- 
 
 often damp. 
 
 All this work of taking in moisture and air, 
 and of making wood, went on in spring and 
 summer. In winter, when no leaves were on 
 the tree, it rested: 
 
 Year by year our oak grew large and strong. 
 When it was about sixty years old it bore its 
 first crop of acorns, and it continued to bear
 
 20 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 acorns for many years. Sometimes the crop 
 was large ; but if a late spring frost had 
 nipped the blossoms of the tree, there would 
 be very few acorns in autumn. 
 
 Sometimes oak-apples or galls appeared 
 upon the twigs in spring. These grew there 
 because an insect had laid an egg in the twig ; 
 the egg became a grub, and the presence of 
 the grub made the twig unhealthy. The 
 oak-apple is pretty, but it is not the natural 
 healthy product of the tree. 
 
 A hundred years went by, then another 
 hundred, and our oak grew old and past its 
 prime. Some of the great boughs grew rotten 
 and broke off in gales of wind. The tree could 
 not put out so many leaves in spring as in 
 its younger days ; the upper branches grew 
 stag-headed, as they are to-day. 
 
 But old and stag-headed as it is, there is 
 life in the great tree still. The leaves upon its 
 lower branches make a pleasant shade in which 
 to sit. People speak of the tree with interest, 
 pictures of it are painted, and every visitor 
 to the forest likes to see the " Great Oak."
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 YOUNG OAKS 
 
 WE said that we would try to find in the 
 forest an oak-tree which would give us a 
 straight piece of timber thirty or forty feet 
 long. We have rested for half an hour, and 
 I think I know where to look for one. 
 
 Not far from the Great Oak we come to 
 a part of the forest which is enclosed by a 
 fence. This looks as though we may not go 
 in, but after walking by the fence for a hundred 
 yards we come to a gate with a stile beside it. 
 The gate is locked, but wherever there is a 
 stile in this forest we may cross it and follow 
 the footpath beyond. 
 
 When we have crossed the stile we find 
 ourselves once more among oaks. They are, 
 however, very different trees from the old oak. 
 That was in a clear space by itself ; these 
 stand closely together, and you would have to 
 cut down several -to make room for the spread- 
 ing Great Oak. These oaks are nearly as tall 
 as the old one, but their trunks are very much 
 thinner ; we measure one with our tape and
 
 22 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 find that its girth is only six feet. Do you see 
 another difference too ? There are no branches 
 growing on the trunks of these oaks for the 
 first twenty feet or so from the ground. Higher 
 up are a few small branches, but we have 
 to look almost to the top of a tree before we 
 see many ; even these are not very large. 
 
 You wonder perhaps why these oaks, though 
 nearly as tall as the old oak, have so much 
 thinner trunks ; you wonder also why there 
 are no branches near the ground. The answer 
 is, " Because these oaks have been made 
 to grow in this way." 
 
 " How can a tree be made to grow in a 
 certain way ? " you ask. We will see. 
 
 A tree, you know, is only a large plant. 
 Some of you grow flowers, I hope ; you may 
 have a garden at home or a greenhouse. Even 
 if you have neither garden nor greenhouse, 
 many of you have a plant of some kind 
 growing in a sunny window. You have a 
 geranium, perhaps. Your geranium has a 
 stem, branches, leaves, flowers and seed. 
 A tree, like the oak we have been looking 
 at, has all these. The stem and leaves and 
 branches we saw. The seed of the oak is the 
 kernel inside the acorn ; this we have not seen
 
 YOUNG OAKS 
 
 to-day, for acorns do not appear till autumn. 
 Nor have we seen the flowers, for they appear 
 earlier in the spring. The flowers of many 
 large trees are small and 
 not easily seen. 
 
 You keep your gera- 
 nium in a window be- 
 cause you know that 
 all plants require light. 
 Supposing that one day 
 in the spring you took 
 it from the sunny win- 
 dow, carried it up to an 
 attic where there was 
 only a skylight in the 
 roof, and left it there 
 upon the floor. Do you 
 know what would hap- 
 pen ? The geranium 
 would begin to struggle 
 up towards the light 
 above it. 
 
 send out good branches 
 or grow into a nice bushy plant as it does in 
 the window. Its main stem the trunk 
 would grow long and " leggy " from trying to 
 reach the light. 
 
 J; 
 
 It WOuld not 3 - " iale , 
 4. female 
 
 OAK FLOWERS. 
 
 (natural size) 
 
 (magnified)
 
 24 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 The oak, like every other plant and tree, 
 wants light ; indeed, the oak demands a great 
 deal. The old oak stands in a clear space ; 
 the sun can shine all round and give it plenty 
 of light. It therefore grew in its natural 
 manner, sending out many branches from the 
 top of a short stout trunk. 
 
 But the forester does not grow trees entirely 
 for the sake of their natural beauty. He wants 
 timber which he can sell. These short trunks 
 and strong crooked branches are not much 
 wanted now ; long straight stems are more 
 needed. What does the forester do ? He 
 plants his young oaks close together. 
 
 Then what happens ? Exactly what hap- 
 pened to your geranium. Each young oak 
 finds itself surrounded by a number of neigh- 
 bours which keep the light from shining freely 
 round it. Up above, however, there is the 
 open sky and plenty of light, so each young 
 oak grows upwards towards the light as 
 quickly as it can. The strength and energy 
 of the tree are used to climb with, and very 
 few branches are formed. In sixty years or 
 so oaks grown in this way will have a straight 
 trunk much taller than that of our old oak 
 nearly a thousand years of age. Their top-
 
 YOUNG OAKS 25 
 
 most twigs will not perhaps be as high up as 
 the topmost twig of the Great Oak ; that does 
 not matter, it is the trunk which the forester 
 wants. As you see, he has made his oaks 
 grow in the way he wished. 
 
 He must not grow them too closely together, 
 and as they grow larger he must allow them 
 more and more space. When this plantation 
 was first made, the young trjees stood only a 
 few feet from each other two or three feet 
 apart is the proper distance. As they grew, 
 some were cut down to give more room to 
 their neighbours, and more were cut down 
 from time to time. At last, when the trees 
 are nearly as tall as he requires them to be, 
 the forester will begin to let more light in 
 gradually by cutting down still more trees. 
 
 He will be careful not to let in too much light 
 not to break the canopy formed by the tops 
 of the trees. When the trees get light without 
 having to climb towards it they will begin to 
 grow rapidly in girth. 
 
 I think some of these oaks would give 
 us a beam thirty feet long and quite straight. 
 But their trunks are still slender and they will 
 be allowed to grow much thicker before they 
 are felled. An oak is not in its prime till
 
 26 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 it is a hundred and twenty or a hundred and 
 thirty years old ; many oaks are allowed to 
 stand longer than that. Still the young trees 
 cut down from time to time to make room for 
 the others can be used for many purposes. 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE HOUSE BY THE RIVER 
 
 IN the days when all ships were made of 
 wood and our ships were really the " wooden 
 walls of England," a great deal of oak from 
 this forest was used for ship-building. The 
 forest is a long way from London or from any 
 large seaport town where ships were built. 
 There were no railways in those days, and it 
 would have been a long and weary journey 
 for horses to draw the timber on waggons to 
 the nearest place where it was wanted. We will 
 find out how the timber was taken to the 
 shipyards. 
 
 Let us suppose for a little that we are living 
 more than three hundred years ago, and that 
 a large tree near our old oak has just been 
 cut down. The trunk and branches are
 
 THE HOUSE BY THE RIVER 27 
 
 placed on strong timber-waggons, or perhaps 
 on sleds without wheels. Then the great 
 teams eight or ten horses to each waggon 
 set off down the road and we will follow them. 
 After two or three miles the road leaves 
 
 DRAKES HOME. 
 
 the forest. Presently we go through a large 
 village ; then out again among the fields. 
 At last the road begins to descend a narrow 
 winding lane between high banks ; beside 
 the road there flows a little tinkling stream. 
 All the way we go the roads are hard and firm 
 to-day ; if it were really three hundred years 
 ago they would be only rough cart-tracks, 
 with deep ruts and much mud.
 
 28 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 At the bottom of the lane is a tiny village 
 or hamlet, and beyond this is the shore of a 
 broad river more than a mile wide. The 
 hamlet is a very small place ; there are only 
 eight or nine cottages, and one house, rather 
 larger than the others, which stands close to 
 the shore. Over the doorway of this house 
 there is a low stone porch. 
 
 If it were really some three hundred years 
 ago we might hope to see a very famous man 
 standing in this porch a man of whom I 
 feel sure you have all heard. I mean Sir 
 Francis Drake, the great seaman and admiral 
 who lived in the time of Queen Elizabeth. 
 It is said that he often stayed in this house. 
 
 Can you guess why he stayed here ? You 
 see he was a great seaman, and he wished 
 to sail in good and well-built ships. In those 
 days if ships were to be good they had to be 
 built of good sound timber. When Drake 
 came down here it was no doubt because he 
 wished to see that only the very finest timber 
 from the forest was being used to build the 
 Queen's ships. 
 
 There was another reason too which may 
 have brought him here. At that time we 
 were at war with Spain, and the Spaniards
 
 THE HOUSE BY THE RIVER 
 
 knew that many of the ships in which the 
 English seamen sailed and fought were built 
 from timber grown here. The Spaniards had 
 a plan to send a small vessel up this river to 
 put ashore some daring men who would set 
 fire to the forest. 
 
 As a matter of fact our forest would not 
 have been easy 
 to burn indeed 
 it would hardly 
 have burnt at 
 all. Forests will 
 burn easily in 
 some hot dry 
 countries ; and 
 probably the 
 
 Spaniards did 
 
 not know that 
 
 a forest of oaks in a moist climate such as we 
 
 have would be a very difficult thing to set on 
 
 fire. ' Still Drake did not wish them to try, and 
 
 I have no doubt he kept a sharp look-out in 
 
 case a Spanish ship should come in sight. 
 
 We were supposing that we had followed 
 a load of timber down here. This little 
 hamlet was the port from which most of the 
 forest timber was sent to the dockyards. It 
 
 ONE OF DRAKE S SHIPS.
 
 30 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 is very quiet here to-day ; only one or two 
 women and some children are to be seen. 
 There are a few fishing-boats lying on the 
 beach ; some are even in the little village 
 street, for at high tide the water flows up 
 between the houses. 
 
 In Drake's day this was a very busy place. 
 There was a pier stretching out into the deep 
 water of the river, and we might have seen 
 several small vessels waiting to be laden with 
 the timber. 
 
 The pier has fallen to pieces long ago, and 
 there are no ships lying off the shore to-day. 
 All the timber that is now cut in the forest 
 is taken away by the railway. Still any 
 village where the great Sir Francis Drake 
 has stayed is worth a visit, is it not ? 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 EVERGREENS 
 
 WHEN we were last in the forest it was a day 
 in June, and now it is November. Perhaps you 
 do not think winter a very good time for 
 another visit, but a fine winter's day in the
 
 EVERGREENS 31 
 
 woods is very pleasant. In summer the 
 forest is cool, for the leafy branches shade us 
 from the sun ; in winter it is warm, because 
 the trunks and branches of the trees shelter 
 us from cold winds. 
 
 If there were only " deciduous " trees in 
 our forest it would be very bare to-day. 
 " Deciduous " trees are those which drop 
 their leaves every autumn and do not get 
 the new ones till the following spring. Oaks 
 and beeches are both deciduous trees, and 
 to-day there is not a green leaf on either oak 
 or beech. The leaves on the beech-trees 
 which we pass have turned a beautiful ruddy 
 brown ; those of the oaks are duller and paler 
 in colour. From both beeches and oaks the 
 leaves are falling ceaselessly with a loud 
 pattering sound like rain, for they are now 
 quite dry and crisp. 
 
 Under the trees the bracken which we saw 
 so green and fresh in June has all turned 
 brown. A great deal of it has been cut and 
 carted away, for bracken makes a very good 
 bed or litter for horses and cattle ; it does 
 instead of straw. The grass is still green, 
 but it is thickly covered with the fallen 
 leaves.
 
 32 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 The faded leaves upon the trees and on the 
 ground, and the dead bracken, would make 
 a very brown picture if there were nothing 
 else to see. But there are plenty of green 
 leaves in sight just here. We are standing 
 at the edge of the Holly Wood, and the fine 
 hollies with their shining leaves and crimson 
 berries make a beautiful picture. We notice 
 them more to-day than we did when all the 
 other trees were green in June. 
 
 Hollies and yews, with many other trees, 
 are evergreens ; they do not drop their leaves 
 every autumn and remain bare through the 
 winter. You must not think, however, that 
 an evergreen tree keeps the same leaves on 
 its branches all its life. It is an evergreen 
 because, before the old leaves drop off, the new 
 ones are ready to take their place. Looking 
 at a holly from a distance you might not notice 
 any difference in its leaves all the year round. 
 If you look at it closely in the spring or early 
 summer you will see that a great many of the 
 leaves are quite young and fresh. They are 
 lighter in colour than the old ones, and their 
 points are not yet so hard and sharp. You 
 would also find many dead brown leaves upon 
 the ground below the tree.
 
 EVERGREENS 33 
 
 There are two or three thousand holly-trees 
 in this wood, and they are all about the same 
 age about two hundred and fifty years old. 
 Of course the holly is a mere bush compared 
 with an oak or a beech ; the very largest holly 
 in the wood has a girth of about eight feet, 
 and few are more than half that size. Their 
 
 BRANCH OF HOLLY. 
 
 stems are covered with a smooth, light grey 
 bark. 
 
 I suppose most of you have seen a sprig 
 of holly at Christmas-time, and know how 
 bright the crimson berries are. Many of the 
 hollies here are thickly covered with berries 
 and are a beautiful sight. Others have none, 
 but even these are bright and cheerful though 
 their leaves are dark. The upper side of a
 
 34 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 holly leaf is so smooth and glossy that it 
 reflects the sunshine like a looking-glass. 
 
 There are some yews here too ; they are 
 beautiful, but not perhaps very cheerful- 
 looking trees. The dark green leaflets are 
 about an inch long and very narrow a dozen 
 of them placed side by side will hardly measure 
 an inch. They are set very closely together 
 in two rows on opposite sides of the twig. 
 The lower boughs grow very near the ground, 
 and the thick mass of leaves makes a dark and 
 gloomy shadow beneath and round a yew. 
 
 There are red berries on the yew we have 
 been looking at, and as we came up to the tree 
 a thrush flew out. Thrushes are very fond of 
 these berries ; we, however, will not taste 
 them though they are rather sweet, for the 
 seeds which they contain are said to be poison- 
 ous. Some people say they are not ; but as a 
 friend tells me he has known pheasants 
 poisoned by eating them, I think we will be on 
 the safe side and leave them alone. 
 
 The leaves are a deadly poison to human 
 beings and to horses. If you ever have a 
 horse do not put him in a field where there is 
 a yew, nor leave him where he can reach one. 
 Many horses have died from eating only a
 
 EVERGREENS 35 
 
 few mouthfuls of the leaves. It does not seem 
 certain whether they will also poison cattle ; 
 some people say so, but others think not. 
 Sheep have sometimes been known to die 
 from eating yew leaves ; yet other sheep have 
 been seen to eat them and suffer no harm. 
 We saw what an important tree the oak 
 
 BRANCH OF YEW. 
 
 was in the days of wooden ships. In still 
 earlier times the yew was also important. 
 Before gunpowder was invented many bow- 
 men or archers fought in our battles ; every 
 one of them carried a bow made of yew, for 
 the wood is very strong and tough. 
 
 We have strolled through the Holly Wood, 
 and now get over a stile. At once we are on a 
 broad grassy path between two beautiful 
 green hedges which stretch before us in a
 
 38 
 
 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 and a great many magazines are now printed 
 on paper which is made from wood pulp ; this 
 wood pulp is mostly made from the wood of 
 the spruce fir. 
 
 I sometimes go to stay at a 
 little sea-side town in Devon- 
 shire. The house in which I 
 
 BRANCHES AND CONE OF SPRUCE. 
 
 stay looks out on the harbour, and the ships 
 pass in and out only a few yards from the 
 windows. When I first went there I soon 
 noticed one steamer which came into the 
 harbour about every fortnight or three weeks ; 
 she was called the Belle of Devon. Her hold 
 was full each time she came, and even her
 
 EVERGREENS 39 
 
 deck was piled with large square packages. 
 I said to a friendly fisherman one day, " Where 
 does that steamer come from, and what is her 
 cargo ? " " Oh," he said, " she comes from 
 Sweden with wood pulp." 
 
 We use so much paper in England and grow 
 so few spruce trees, that we have to import 
 a great deal of this pulp from abroad. That 
 one steamer brought several hundred tons 
 every few weeks. Spruces are also used for 
 ladders, and for other purposes where a long 
 straight stem is needed. This beautiful drive 
 is only planted as an ornament to the 
 forest. 
 
 We have walked for some time between our 
 two great hedges, but still we do not see the 
 end, for the drive is two miles long. Here 
 and there are vacant places in the rows ; 
 then the tall trees begin again. 
 
 We saw that the oak has a large tap-root 
 which goes far down into the ground. Some 
 trees have long tap-roots ; others have not, 
 and the spruce is one of these it is a " shallow- 
 rooting " tree. Its roots spread out not far 
 below the surface of the ground. 
 
 This is the reason of the gaps in our hedges. 
 Why ? Because the spruce has not so firm a
 
 36 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 perfectly straight line as far as we can see. 
 Very high our two hedges are fifty or sixty 
 feet, perhaps even more ! They are really two 
 rows of tall spruce firs, and the trees are set 
 so closely together that we cannot see between 
 them. 
 
 In talking about the spruce we must use 
 two long words. One tells us what the tree 
 is, the other tells us what it is not. 
 
 It is, like many other evergreens, a 
 " conifer " ; that is, it bears cones. We see 
 some of them on the trees to-day, hanging 
 from the ends of the branches. They are 
 about five inches long, and pointed at the 
 end ; under the rough scales with which the 
 cones are covered lie the seeds. 
 
 The short leaves or needles grow closely all 
 round the twigs ; not, like those of the yew, 
 on two sides only. They end in a sharp point 
 and are well called needles. These needles 
 remain on a spruce for six or seven years. 
 
 The spruce is not " indigenous " to our 
 forest. " Indigenous " means native. Oaks, 
 beeches, yews and hollies are natives of Eng- 
 land ; they are indigenous. The spruce is not 
 so, but was brought to this country from the 
 continent of Europe a few hundred years ago.
 
 EVERGREENS 
 
 37 
 
 sights of 
 forest. 
 
 These trees are very fine, with their tall 
 straight stems and their spreading branches, 
 of which the lower ones sweep the ground. 
 The Spruce 
 Drive., as this 
 walk is called, 
 is one of the 
 the 
 Then 
 
 too the spruce 
 is a very inter- 
 esting tree to 
 us. I hope 
 some of you 
 have seen a 
 Christmas- 
 tree ; that was 
 a spruce, I feel 
 sure, for thou- 
 sands of young 
 spruces are 
 sold in London 
 every year for Christmas-trees. 
 
 You may also* have met the spruce where 
 perhaps you did not recognise it. You have 
 met it when you were reading some magazine. 
 But the magazine was made of paper ! Yes, 
 
 SPRUCE TREES.
 
 40 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 hold upon the ground as the oak has, and 
 therefore strong winds often blow one down. 
 The spruce too, being an evergreen, is more 
 top-heavy than the oak. Most gales of wind 
 come in autumn or winter when oaks and other 
 deciduous trees are leafless, or nearly so. 
 The wind can then blow through their bare 
 branches. The leaves or needles of the spruce 
 are always on the boughs ; thus they prevent 
 the wind from blowing through easily, and 
 the tree is often uprooted. 
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 BEECHES 
 
 AT the end of the Spruce Drive is an open 
 space or clearing, in the middle of which stand 
 five or six fine beech-trees. The grass beneath 
 them is thickly covered with the ruddy fallen 
 leaves, and many more are still falling. The 
 beech bears a great number of leaves ; it is 
 what is called a tree of " dense foliage." 
 
 When the leaves of deciduous trees fall in 
 autumn and decay upon the ground, they give 
 back to the soil some portion of the food
 
 BEECHES 41 
 
 which the roots have taken from it. Beech 
 leaves give back more food than those of any 
 other tree, except, perhaps, the Hornbeam ; 
 they mix with the soil and make a great deal 
 of what is called " humus." 
 
 For this reason beeches are suitable to plant 
 under other trees ; that is, it is a good plan 
 to plant young beeches among tall well-grown 
 trees. Oaks are often " underplanted " with 
 beeches in this way. The beeches will then 
 shade the ground, and this is good for two 
 reasons. The soil is kept cool and moist, and 
 is not likely to become dry and parched ; 
 also the thick shade of the beeches destroys 
 weeds which would otherwise grow there and 
 would rob the trees of food. 
 
 So the beech is a valuable tree to the 
 forester because of the richness of its leaves, 
 and because it will grow well in partial shade. 
 Its wood is not so hard and tough as that of 
 oak, and is generally much less valuable. 
 In the county of Buckinghamshire, where 
 many beeches grow, chairs are made from the 
 wood ; it is also used for carpenters' tools and 
 for " turnery," such things as butchers' trays 
 and wooden bowls. In France, wooden shoes, 
 called " sabots," are also made from beech-
 
 42 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 wood ; and both in France and Germany the 
 wood is much used for fuel, for a fire of beech- 
 logs gives more heat than that of almost any 
 other kind of wood. 
 
 The leaves are shorter and rounder in shape 
 than those of the oak. Although the beech is 
 
 BRANCH OF BEECH, WITH MAST. 
 
 a deciduous tree the leaves sometimes remain 
 on the trees till they are pushed off by the new 
 leaves in spring ; this however rarely occurs 
 except on young trees or on a hedge of beech. 
 Formerly, and perhaps even now, beech 
 leaves were much used on the Continent for 
 stuffing mattresses. If the leaves are gathered 
 early in the autumn, before they have been
 
 BEECHES 43 
 
 nipped by frosts, they do not decay, but last 
 fresh and crisp for many months. Thus they 
 make a very comfortable bed. 
 
 The beech-trunks are not nearly so thick 
 as the trunk of our old oak. There is another 
 great difference ; the bark is not brown and 
 rough, but smooth and silvery grey. The 
 trunks are taller than that of the Great Oak, 
 and the branches into which the trunks divide 
 still grow upwards ; they do not spread out 
 horizontally as many of the oak boughs do. 
 
 The fruit of the beech is the nut or " mast," 
 and to-day there is plenty of it on the ground 
 among the fallen leaves. Another autumn 
 perhaps you might find none, for beech-mast 
 does not ripen every year. The mast is quite 
 different from the acorn, though it is brown 
 and smooth. Each nut has three sides, and 
 the edges are rather sharp. The nuts grow 
 in prickly cases, each of which holds two nuts. 
 
 Hundreds of years ago the beech was, in 
 one way, as valuable as the oak to the country 
 people of England. Pigs like the mast as 
 much as they like 'acorns, and they were largely 
 fed on it. Deer like it too. To-day pigs have 
 other things to eat, and the last of the deer 
 were taken from the forest many years ago.
 
 44 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 Still there is someone left to eat the mast. 
 I thought of him as we came down between the 
 spruces, and hoped that we might find him 
 here. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 A SQUIRREL 
 
 WHILE we are standing between two of the 
 beeches we see something moving on the 
 ground a little way off. That is nothing 
 strange to-day for there is a strong breeze 
 which blows the fallen leaves about. Still, 
 if what we see now is a beech-leaf it is a very 
 large one about a foot long ! It is almost 
 exactly the colour of a beech-leaf certainly 
 a beautiful ruddy brown. 
 
 Suddenly it bounds away across the fallen 
 leaves and runs up the trunk of a beech till 
 it is thirty feet above our heads ; then it 
 crouches on a branch and makes a sharp 
 chattering noise. No beech-leaf, however 
 large, would do this ; we see that it is a little 
 animal covered with ruddy brown fur, and
 
 A SQUIRREL 45 
 
 that it has a long and bushy tail. It is a 
 squirrel. 
 
 Here, you see, is another reason why it 
 is pleasant to be in the woods in winter time. 
 When the trees are bare, or nearly bare, it 
 is easier to see what is going on in them. In 
 summer the dense foliage of the beech would 
 soon have hidden the squirrel from our sight ; 
 to-day we see him well. 
 
 Though we want very much to look at the 
 squirrel, he seems to have seen enough of us. 
 As we walk nearer the tree he runs back along 
 the bough and begins to climb higher up the 
 trunk. He climbs on the opposite side to 
 that on which we are ; as soon as we walk 
 round the tree to get a peep at him, he too 
 changes his side and so keeps the great trunk 
 between himself and us. 
 
 You wonder how he can climb the smooth 
 trunk so fast and well. He has five little toes 
 on each hind-foot, and four fingers and some- 
 thing like a thumb on each fore-paw. Each 
 of these toes and fingers has a sharp strong 
 claw with which he can cling to the smoothest 
 tree quite easily. Then too he can leap we 
 saw what bounds he made on the ground. 
 Up in the trees it is the same ; he can spring
 
 46 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 from one tree to another, and in this way 
 can travel for a long distance through a wood 
 without coming down to the ground. 
 
 He will not leave this tree without coming 
 down, for the beeches stand too far apart 
 for even a squirrel to leap. I think that if 
 we go a little distance off and hide he will 
 soon be down again. The beech-mast is one 
 of his favourite foods, and that was what he 
 was looking for when we disturbed him. Let 
 us hide behind another tree and wait. 
 
 There ! he is down again. He is very 
 cautious at first, but as he sees nothing of us 
 he grows bolder. Soon he is busy picking up 
 the beech-nuts with his fore paws. Each time 
 that he finds a nut he sits up on his haunches 
 and curls his bushy tail over his back. Then 
 we see that though his back and sides and tail 
 are reddish brown, his breast is white. With 
 his bright black eyes, his sharply pricked ears 
 and his quick movements, he looks " all 
 alive." 
 
 A great many of the nuts which he picks 
 up he throws down again. There is no better 
 judge of an acorn, a walnut, or beech-mast 
 than a squirrel. If he throws down a nut then 
 you need not trouble to pick it up ; you may
 
 A SQUIRREL 47 
 
 be quite sure that that nut is not a good 
 one. 
 
 I once had a very good view of a squirrel 
 choosing nuts. A few yards away from my 
 study window there is a large old walnut-tree. 
 On the other side of the house is a small wood 
 or shrubbery with several large trees in it. 
 I was at work by the window one morning in 
 the autumn, when suddenly I saw a squirrel 
 run across the lawn to the walnut-tree. You 
 may be sure that I stopped writing and kept 
 my eyes on him. 
 
 He searched about under the tree and soon 
 picked up a walnut ; after a moment he threw 
 it down again and he did the same with several 
 others. Presently he seemed to find a nut 
 which he liked, and off he went with it across 
 the lawn to the shrubbery. Soon he came back 
 again ; indeed he was to and fro between the 
 shrubbery and the walnut-tree for nearly an 
 hour. I did not get much writing done that 
 morning, but then I learnt a good deal about a 
 squirrel. 
 
 Now one of the. walnuts which he had thrown 
 down had rolled to a place where I could see 
 it. When the squirrel did not come back any 
 more I went out and picked up this walnut.
 
 48 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 It seemed a very good one ; at any rate the 
 shell was quite good. When I opened the 
 shell I could see nothing wrong at first. 
 Looking more closely, however, I saw a spot 
 where the kernel of the walnut was just begin- 
 ning to decay. The squirrel had found out 
 this without opening the shell. 
 
 That squirrel took his nuts away to the 
 shrubbery, where I afterwards found out that 
 he lived. Our squirrel to-day runs up the 
 tree when he is pleased with a beech-nut, and 
 disappears in a corner between the trunk and 
 a large bough. What is he doing ? 
 
 To answer that I must use another long 
 word. Long words look hard to understand 
 I know ; still, the older you grow the more 
 long words you will find in books. You 
 may as well begin to understand a few at 
 once. 
 
 The squirrel is an animal which " hiber- 
 nates." To " hibernate " is to sleep during 
 the winter not in the night only, but in the 
 day as well. That is what a squirrel does ; 
 several other animals, both in England and 
 in other countries, do the same. 
 
 I do not mean that the squirrel goes off 
 to sleep on the very first day of winter and
 
 OLD BEECHES.
 
 SQUIRREL.
 
 A SQUIRREL 
 
 never wakes again till spring is come. I know 
 he does not do that, for I have often seen 
 squirrels running about on mild and sunny 
 winter days. 
 But he sleeps 
 the greater 
 part of his 
 time in win- 
 ter, and only 
 wakes up on 
 a day that is 
 fairly warm. 
 
 You won- 
 der how he 
 can live for 
 days and 
 weeks with- 
 out eating 
 anything. In 
 the first place 
 he is in very 
 good condi- 
 tion plump 
 
 11 A SQUIRREL'S NEST. 
 
 and well-fed 
 
 when he begins his long sleep. He has had a 
 good feast on the autumn fruits nuts, acorns, 
 and beech-mast. Then, too, no creature needs
 
 50 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 much food while it is asleep and not moving 
 about. 
 
 There is a third explanation. The squirrel 
 makes a store or hoard of food. That is what 
 my squirrel was doing with the walnuts, and 
 what this squirrel is doing with the beech- 
 mast. Somewhere in the hollow of a tree- 
 trunk, or sometimes in a hedge or ditch, 
 squirrels lay up a store of nuts, or acorns, or 
 mast food which they like and which will 
 keep good for some time. When they wake 
 in the spring, or on a fine day in winter, they 
 know where to go for food. 
 
 For his winter sleep the squirrel chooses 
 a warm, snug hole ; generally it is in the 
 hollow of a tree, or he will sometimes use a 
 deserted bird's nest. Here he curls himself 
 up in a tight round ball, puts his tiny paws 
 and his thick tail over his eyes, and takes his 
 long nap. 
 
 In the spring he builds himself a nest of 
 his own, called a " drey," high up in the fork 
 of some great branch. It is made of dried 
 grass and moss, and has two entrances. In 
 this drey the young squirrels are born. For 
 a few days they are blind, like puppies ; then 
 they begin to frisk about with their parents,
 
 A SQUIRREL 51 
 
 and in a few days more they are able to take 
 care of themselves and to begin life on their 
 own account. 
 
 The squirrel is such a beautiful little fellow 
 that I wish he had no habits that were likely 
 to get him into trouble. There is no doubt 
 that he sometimes robs birds' nests, eating the 
 eggs and even killing the young birds. This 
 is bad for the poor birds, and the squirrel has 
 another habit which is bad for himself. He 
 dearly loves to nibble the bark of young 
 trees, and also to eat the buds in spring. To 
 damage the bark of a young tree will seriously 
 injure its health and growth ; and this is what 
 squirrels, as well as hares and rabbits, often do. 
 
 In this way the squirrel is no friend to the 
 forester who wishes to take care of his young 
 trees. I am afraid that many a squirrel who 
 might have had a long and happy life if he 
 only ate nuts and acorns, gets shot by the 
 woodmen for his thefts of buds and bark. 
 We can only hope that this squirrel, which has 
 given us so much pleasure in watching him 
 to-day, will not meet with such a fate.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 TREE-FELLING 
 
 IT is February, and once more we are in the 
 forest. We have seen that although the woods 
 are very beautiful in summer there is also 
 much to see there on a winter's day as well. 
 This morning we will see what I daresay few 
 of you have ever seen before ; we will see a 
 tree cut down. 
 
 The right time at which to fell a tree is in 
 the winter or the early spring. Why ? Be- 
 cause at that time the sap is not running. 
 Trees rest during the winter ; there are no 
 leaves on them to make food as we saw was 
 done in spring and summer by the leaves of 
 our oak. 
 
 When a tree is first cut down the wood is 
 not perfectly dry ; it must " season " for some 
 time before it is fit to use as timber. Wood, 
 however, is drier in winter than it is in summer 
 when the sap is flowing in the tree, and there- 
 fore winter is the best time for felling. 
 
 Oaks are being felled this morning in a 
 plantation not far from the Court House. 
 
 52
 
 TREE-FELLING 
 
 53 
 
 When we get there several trees are already 
 lying on the ground, and the men are just 
 setting to work on another. A long rope has 
 
 been fastened to the top of the tree's trunk, 
 the other end being tied round another tree 
 some distance off. The man who fastened 
 this rope to the top of the oak climbed up some
 
 54 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 distance on a ladder. From the top of the 
 ladder he climbed still further up by means of 
 climbing irons sharp spikes of iron fixed 
 to his boots. 
 
 The rope will help to guide the tree in the 
 right direction as it falls. These forest wood- 
 cutters are so clever and experienced at their 
 work that they rarely use one. They have 
 the rope to-day, however, for two or three 
 trees stand in rather awkward positions near 
 the oak that is to fall. 
 
 The men have also been busy with large 
 axes chopping all round the tree just above 
 the ground. The rough bark has been cut 
 away, and we can see the wood beneath. 
 Presently the axes are put aside and two of 
 
 TWO-HANDED SAW. 
 
 the men take a large two-handed saw. They 
 seat themselves on empty sacks on either 
 side of the tree and begin to saw through the 
 trunk, sawing on the opposite side of the tree 
 to that from which the rope is stretched. 
 This oak is being felled with the bark on.
 
 TREE-FELLING 55 
 
 Oak bark is used for tanning leather, and 
 formerly it was used a great deal more than 
 it is at the present time. Now there are 
 other methods of tanning, but a good deal of 
 oak bark is still used. The bark is best taken 
 from the tree late in the spring about the 
 middle of May when the sap is rising. That, 
 as we said just now, is not the best time for 
 cutting down the tree for timber. So the bark 
 is sometimes stripped from the tree in spring, 
 and the tree is left to stand till the following 
 winter before being felled. 
 
 A tree thus stripped of its bark and still 
 standing is rather a sad sight. At night it 
 looks quite ghostly ; for the naked wood, 
 without its covering of bark, gleams white in 
 the darkness. Of course only trees which it is 
 intended to fell are stripped in this way ; a 
 tree will not live after it has been " barked." 
 The best bark is that which is taken from oak 
 " coppice " ; we shall see presently what a 
 coppice is. 
 
 The men have been sawing for a few minutes 
 and have now stopped, although they have not 
 sawn half-way through the tree. They have 
 stopped because the weight of that side of the 
 tree is beginning to press upon the saw and they
 
 56 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 can hardly draw it to and fro. Into the slit 
 cut by the saw a wedge is driven by blows 
 from a heavy mallet. The wedge forces the 
 slit a little further open, the saw can now 
 move freely, and the work goes on again. 
 Every few minutes the wedge is driven in 
 further still, and sometimes more wedges 
 are put in. 
 
 As the saw cuts its way through the trunk 
 the whole weight of the great tree rests on 
 the wedges and on the strip of trunk not yet 
 sawn through. At last, when only a narrow 
 strip of wood remains unsawn, the saw is put 
 aside. All the men but one go to the far end 
 of the rope and begin to pull with long strong 
 pulls. The tree bends towards them, but it 
 bends back again ; the strip of unsawn trunk 
 still holds it firm. 
 
 The old white-bearded woodcutter who 
 has spent all his life in the forest and is in 
 charge of the work, strikes at the wedges with 
 his heavy mallet and drives them further in. 
 He strikes again and again, while the men 
 pull hard at the rope ; the great tree sways 
 at each pull, but it sways back again and will 
 not fall. Then all at once, after an extra 
 strong pull, the oak does not sway back as it
 
 TREE-FELLING 57 
 
 did before ; it bends still farther forward. 
 There is a loud tearing, groaning noise as the 
 tree's tough fibres crack and break apart ; 
 then the tree bends swiftly forward and falls 
 with a tremendous crash. A cloud of twigs 
 and dust and little clods of earth fly up into 
 the air as the trunk and branches strike the 
 ground. It has taken more than a hundred 
 years of sun and rain and air to make the tall 
 oak grow, but not quite half an hour's work 
 has brought it down. 
 
 You see the tree has fallen just in the line 
 along which the rope was stretched. Though 
 the rope was used here, most trees in the forest 
 are felled without one ; the old woodcutter 
 knows so well just where to make his men saw, 
 and just how to drive his wedges so as to bring 
 the trees down exactly where he wishes them 
 to faU.
 
 KOMAX ROAD 
 AND BLACK- 
 POOL BRIDGE. 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 A ROMAN ROAD 
 
 WE have now seen some very old things in 
 our forest. We have seen the Court House, 
 and the house by the river where the great 
 admiral, Sir Francis Drake, is said to have 
 stayed sometimes. We have seen, too, the 
 Great Oak which is nearly a thousand years 
 old, and perhaps even older than that. To- 
 day I want to show you something older still ; 
 older than the Court House and older even than 
 the oak ; probably older than any house or 
 tree in England. It is a road.
 
 A ROMAN ROAD 59 
 
 To reach it we must follow one of the three 
 roads that meet at the Court House. After 
 we have walked for a mile or two we turn off 
 the road and go down a broad grassy cart- 
 track which runs between the trees. In about 
 two hundred yards we come to a stream which 
 we can cross by a small one-arched bridge. 
 
 But before we reach the bridge we see some- 
 thing we did not expect ; suddenly we are no 
 longer walking on soft grass, but on a sort of 
 pavement. It is about eight feet broad, and 
 the stones of which it is made are something 
 like those with which many streets in London 
 and other large towns are paved. They are 
 eight or nine inches square and are set closely 
 and evenly together. On each side of this 
 pavement there is a line of longer and narrower 
 stones set end to end, just as you see the kerb- 
 stones of the pavement in a town. 
 
 In nearly fifty yards of the pavement there 
 is hardly a stone missing. It is a little rough 
 and uneven in places, for some of the stones 
 have sunk into the ground more than others. 
 We cannot wonder at this ; for the Romans 
 made this paved road nearly two thousand 
 years ago, and it has not been mended or 
 altered since they left England.
 
 60 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 The Romans made a great many roads all 
 over England, and all of them were well and 
 strongly made. However muddy and wet 
 the country might be in winter, and however 
 bad the weather, the Romans had good firm 
 roads over which their soldiers could march at 
 any time. Whatever the Romans did they 
 did well. 
 
 Very few of these roads are now left just as 
 the Romans made them. The names of the 
 roads often remain ; Watling Street in London 
 is part of one of these great roads, and the 
 names of other Roman roads are still left. 
 The pavement of the roads themselves is very 
 seldom to be seen ; the stones have often been 
 taken away and used for building. Sometimes 
 a piece of Roman road is discovered in some 
 field where it has long been buried under earth 
 and grass. We do not often find so good a 
 piece of Roman road as this. 
 
 If we look closely at the long kerb-stones 
 on each side of the road we shall see that 
 they are propped up by other stones. These 
 are sunk deeply into the ground on the outer 
 side of the kerb. In this position they kept 
 the kerb-stones from being forced out of place 
 by the passing of large numbers of soldiers
 
 A ROMAN ROAD 
 
 61 
 
 over the road, or by the weight of heavy 
 loads. 
 
 In about eighty yards the road reaches 
 the stream ; it dips down almost to the edge 
 of the water and we see it on the opposite side. 
 
 DIVERGENT KERB ON ROMAN ROAD. 
 
 Once the bottom of the stream itself was paved 
 just here ; there was a paved ford. A ford 
 is a place where a river or stream is shallow 
 and can be crossed without a bridge. The 
 water has long ago washed away the paving- 
 stones, though some perhaps still lie buried 
 in the mud.
 
 62 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 As the stream is just a little too wide for 
 .us to step across we will go over the bridge. 
 The bridge, too, is old, but not nearly so old 
 as the road only a hundred years or so. I 
 am quite sure, however, that the Romans had 
 a bridge here in their time. How can I be 
 sure ? You shall see for yourselves. 
 
 If we go back a little distance from the 
 stream and look along one side of the pave- 
 ment, we shall find one or two kerb-stones 
 which turn away from the others and point, 
 not towards the ford, but towards the bridge. 
 They are evidently the kerb-stones of another 
 piece of road which branched off from the 
 paved road we see ; they turn off exactly as 
 the points of a railway line do at a junction. 
 These kerb-stones are quite enough to show us 
 that the Romans had a bridge and a road 
 across it, as well as the road through the ford. 
 
 We cannot be quite certain why the Romans 
 made a road through the stream as well as over 
 their bridge. I think that most likely they 
 first made the road through the stream in 
 summer when the water was low. Then they 
 found that in winter, or after heavy rain, the 
 water of the stream rose higher than they had 
 expected, and so they had to build a bridge.
 
 A ROMAN ROAD 63 
 
 Timber-waggons come down the hill on the 
 other side of the stream the oak which we 
 have seen felled will come this way. The 
 waggons cross the little bridge and go along 
 the green lane to the high-road, and the weight 
 of their heavy loads has destroyed the old road 
 that led across the bridge. They do not use 
 the pavement which runs towards the ford, 
 and so it is almost as perfect to-day as when it 
 was made. 
 
 Up the hill across the stream we can still 
 find remains of the road for a long way. Now 
 we see a small piece of pavement half hidden 
 among grass and gorse ; here and there are a 
 few kerb-stones still in place. 
 
 These fragments are hardly so interesting 
 to look at as the strip of road beside the ford. 
 Indeed, I think this paved Roman road is one 
 of the most wonderful things in the forest. 
 All round us as we sit beside the stream are 
 great old trees ; yet the road is older than the 
 very oldest of them older than anything here 
 except the earth on which we sit and the small 
 rippling stream.- Roman soldiers, carrying 
 their shields and short strong two-edged 
 swords, have marched along upon these very 
 stones. The great Emperor Hadrian, too,
 
 64 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 has very likely passed this way ; for he was 
 once in England and used to walk bare-headed 
 through the country twenty miles a day. 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 A COPPICE 
 
 IN the plantation of young oaks which we 
 saw in June there were no small bushes or 
 " underwood " among the trees ; there was 
 nothing but grass and fern. Such a wood, 
 where only tall trees are grown, is called 
 " high forest " or " highwoods." Often, how- 
 ever, smaller trees are grown among the 
 large ones, and are cut down every few years. 
 A wood in which such underwood is grown 
 among tall trees is called a " copse." 
 
 To-day we will visit a " coppice." A coppice 
 or " pure coppice," is a wood in which no trees 
 are allowed to grow very large ; they are 
 cut down while young. There are many 
 purposes for which coppice wood is useful. 
 In those parts of England where hops are 
 grown many hop -poles are needed, and young 
 Spanish Chestnuts and other trees are grown in
 
 CUTTING AND CARTING BRACKEN.
 
 I. IN THE HOLLY WOOD. 2. A FINE HOLLY. 
 3. A CHURCHYARD YEW.
 
 A COPPICE 
 
 65 
 
 
 coppices to produce these. Reels and bobbins 
 are made from the wood of the birch ; ash 
 and hazel are used for hurdles and for the 
 hoops of casks. Wood 
 for these and many 
 other purposes can be 
 grown in a coppice. 
 
 The life of the tall 
 oak we saw cut down 
 is perhaps not quite 
 over. Though, of 
 course, no large trunk 
 will grow again from 
 its roots, small shoots 
 may do so if the roots 
 are not grubbed up. 
 
 Such shoots grow 
 still more quickly from 
 the stump, or " stool " 
 as it is called, of the 
 ash, the hazel, and 
 several other trees, especially if the main 
 stem of the tree has been cut down while 
 young. When these shoots have grown for 
 a few years they are large enough to make 
 poles, hurdles, and other things. When 
 they are cut fresh crops of shoots will appear 
 
 SHOOTS GROWING FROM A STOOL.
 
 66 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 from the stool, and so on for many years. 
 It is a coppice where the trees are frequently 
 cut in this way, that we are now going to 
 see. 
 
 It is not really in the forest, but lies just 
 outside it on the edge of a hill. This after- 
 noon we can see all over it, for every tree 
 and bush has been cut down close to the 
 ground. 
 
 Near us is a large stack of small bushy 
 sticks tied into bundles ; each bundle looks 
 like a very large besom, or like an immense 
 birch-rod but you know nothing about birch- 
 rods ! These are bundles of " pea-sticks " 
 which will be sold to people who have gardens. 
 Most of these pea-sticks are hazel. 
 
 Then there are long narrow piles of logs, 
 propped up at each end by a stout stake 
 driven into the ground. Each of these piles 
 is a " cord " of firewood. Firewood is usually 
 sold by measure, and a cord here is eighteen 
 feet three inches long, three feet five inches 
 high, and the logs two feet two inches in length. 
 But the measurements of a cord are quite 
 different in different parts of the country. 
 
 Down at the far end of the coppice there 
 is a man at work beside a little fire of chips ;
 
 A COPPICE 67 
 
 every now and then we can see the sunlight 
 flash on the tool which he is using. We will 
 go over and see what he is doing. 
 
 I see that he is an old friend of mine. His 
 hair is white and his face is rough and red ; he 
 has been working in the open air, summer and 
 winter alike, for more than fifty years. He will 
 tell you that he has never been ill in his life. 
 He knows all about every sort of woodland 
 work, from felling a tree to making hurdles. 
 
 Just now he is making hoops for casks. 
 Casks which contain liquids, such as beer or 
 wine, are usually hooped with iron. Rough 
 casks with wooden hoops are used for many 
 purposes, such as for packing crockery, 
 groceries, and fruit. 
 
 In front of him the hoop-maker has a small 
 wooden stand. His tools are a chopper and 
 a " draw-knife," and he wears a short leather 
 apron to which is fastened a thick block of 
 wood. Piled in heaps are sticks of different 
 lengths ; some are only about five feet long, 
 others are as much as thirteen. 
 
 He takes a stick from the pile and measures 
 it between two small pegs stuck in the 
 ground. It is a little too long, so he cuts 
 off a few inches with his chopper and also
 
 68 
 
 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 CUTTING RODS TO UNIFORM LENGTHS. 
 
 trims away two or three knots from the stick. 
 He then fixes one end of it in a slit in his 
 
 trestle and 
 makes it fast 
 with a wedge. 
 
 Now he 
 draws his knife 
 towards him all 
 down one side 
 of the stick, 
 paring off the 
 bark and mak- 
 ing that side flat 
 and smooth ; 
 that is the side which will go next the cask. 
 The apron keeps his coat from being rubbed 
 by the loose end of the stick, and as he finishes 
 each stroke, the draw-knife comes against the 
 block of wood. 
 
 While the old man works he talks to us about 
 the woods and the weather, and about a fox 
 which he saw yesterday at the edge of the 
 coppice. His hands work while he is talking, 
 and presently he has finished enough hoops to 
 make a bundle. He binds them together with 
 a tough thin stick ; they are now ready to be 
 taken to the town. Some hoop-makers also
 
 SOME FRIENDS AND FOES 69 
 
 bend the hoops to fit the casks, but these are to 
 be bent at the place where the casks are made. 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 SOME FRIENDS AND FOES 
 
 As we are returning to the forest, a large black 
 and white bird flies up from beside the hedge 
 and alights on the branch of a tree. As it 
 alights it flirts up its tail. It is a magpie, and 
 
 many country people would not like to see it, 
 for there is a superstition that to see one 
 magpie brings bad luck. Even if we believe 
 in luck we need not be troubled to-day, for a 
 second magpie follows the first, and an old 
 rhyme about the bird begins 
 
 One for sorrow, two for mirth.
 
 70 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 At first sight the magpie looked much 
 larger than it really is. Its body is not more 
 than about seven inches long, but its tail is 
 often as much as ten or eleven inches. The 
 under part of its body is white, and there is 
 also a white patch on each shoulder. As it 
 flew we saw more white still, for some of the 
 wing feathers which are only seen when the 
 bird is flying are white too. Its head, back, 
 and the upper feathers of its wings are black, 
 but there are slight tints of blue and bronze 
 on some of the black feathers. 
 
 There are many magpies in the forest, for 
 they are birds that love the woods. They 
 generally build their nest in the fork of some 
 tall tree, and it is very strongly made. It is 
 built of sticks, mud and turf, and is softly lined. 
 Over it is a roof of thorny sticks, leaving only 
 a small hole by which the birds enter. 
 
 There are very few small living things in the 
 forest which the magpie will not eat if it can get 
 them. It will take the eggs of other birds, and 
 young birds too. Young rabbits, squirrels, or 
 even a leveret a young hare are all welcome. 
 If these are not to be had it can put up with 
 mice, frogs, worms, and caterpillars. 
 
 We have not had much time to talk of the
 
 SOME FRIENDS AND FOES 71 
 
 animals and birds in the forest because we 
 have been looking mostly at the trees. The 
 animals, birds and insects which live in the 
 woods are, however, very important to the 
 forester, for many of them do either good or 
 harm to his trees. 
 
 We have said that hares, rabbits, and 
 squirrels often do much damage by eating 
 the bark and the buds. They do this most 
 in hard winters, when snow is on the ground 
 and they cannot easily find other food. 
 Rabbits and hares can generally be killed, or 
 kept out of young plantations by wire netting. 
 In our forest there are very few rabbits. 
 
 The greatest foes to the forester and his 
 trees are insects. There are insects which 
 attack every kind of tree and every part of a 
 tree. Some eat the leaves and thus prevent 
 the tree from breathing and making food. 
 Sometimes an oak will be entirely stripped of 
 its first crop of young leaves in the early 
 summer. If this happens to a strong and 
 healthy oak. more leaves will " flush " in July, 
 but this takes- some of the strength which 
 should have been used for making wood. 
 
 Oak leaves are eaten in this way by the 
 caterpillars of the Green Oak Moth, a small
 
 72 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 moth whose upper wings are green. Another 
 grub feeds on the leaves of the spruce ; and 
 if the leaves are eaten off a spruce the tree is 
 almost certain to die, for it is less able than 
 the oak to recover from such damage. 
 The grubs of wood-wasps are among the 
 enemies which bore their 
 way into the wood of trees, 
 thus spoiling it for use as 
 timber. The roots, bark, 
 and buds all have their 
 special insect foes. So many 
 
 WOOD-WASP AND GRUB. A . , 
 
 dinerent insects attack the 
 oak alone that it would take us a long time 
 to talk about them. 
 
 Some insects, however, are very welcome 
 in the woods ; for they feed on, or otherwise 
 destroy, the harmful ones. Many beetles, 
 flies, and wasps eat insects ; and ants devour 
 large numbers of " larvae " or grubs. Others, 
 while they do not actually eat insects or their 
 grubs, destroy them in another way. They 
 lay their eggs in the bodies of grubs or cater- 
 pillars ; the eggs produce grubs, and these 
 eat their way out of the grub in which they 
 were hatched, leaving it exhausted and dying. 
 
 Other friends of the forester are foxes,
 
 SOME FRIENDS AND FOES 73 
 
 badgers, weasels, and hedgehogs, which all 
 eat large quantities of grubs and beetles. 
 
 Then, too, the forester has a friend in every 
 insect-eating bird. Here is one a small bird 
 which we see climbing the trunk of an oak. 
 
 Its back, wings, 
 and tail are brown, 
 while the under 
 
 TREE-CREEPER. 
 
 part of its body is 
 
 white ; its beak is NUT-HATCH. 
 
 long and slightly 
 
 curved. It is a " tree-creeper," and the insects 
 
 which it finds among the bark are its chief 
 
 food ; its long beak can reach them even in 
 
 deep crevices. 
 
 We watch the bird as it creeps up the tree ; 
 now it is on our side, now on the other out
 
 74 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 of sight. Presently it leaves the oak, flies to 
 the foot of another tree close by, and begins 
 its climb again. The tree-creeper never works 
 downwards ; it always begins its hunt at the 
 bottom of a trunk or bough. 
 
 The nut-hatch, a grey-backed bird, also 
 climbs trees at times and finds its food among 
 the bark. The green woodpecker, whose loud 
 laughing call rings through the woods in spring; 
 the starling and the cuckoo ; these, and many 
 others, do good work for the forester. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 OUR LAST DAY 
 
 WE are only able to spend a day in the forest 
 now and then, and we have not time to see 
 all that goes on, nor to look at every kind of 
 tree which grows there. Perhaps you will 
 wonder that we have not spoken of the elm, 
 but there are very few elms in the forest 
 not more than a dozen altogether. The elm 
 is not a tree of the woods, but of the field and 
 hedgerow. Its timber is not very valuable, 
 though it is used for making coffins.
 
 OUR LAST DAY 
 
 75 
 
 We must, however, speak of the larch, and 
 just now we happen to be walking through a 
 larch plantation. The boughs are bare, but 
 in summer you might think that the larch was 
 an evergreen ; its leaves or needles are much 
 like those of other evergreens, such as the 
 
 BRANCH OF LARCH. 
 
 spruce and the yew. They are long, very 
 narrow, and sharp at the end. The larch also 
 bears cones about an inch long ; it is almost 
 the only conifer that is not an evergreen. 
 
 The leaflets of the yew, as we saw, grow 
 closely together in two rows, on opposite sides 
 of the twig. Those of the spruce grow thickly
 
 76 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 all round the twig. If we looked at the larch 
 in summer when the needles are on the trees, 
 we should find that they grow in a different 
 way from those of the yew or the spruce. 
 Clusters of thirty or forty needles grow at 
 short intervals along the twig. Even to- 
 day we can see on the twigs the places from 
 which these clusters of needles have dropped. 
 
 A century and a half ago the larch was almost 
 unknown in England, for it is not an indi- 
 genous tree here. In 1738 two or three tiny 
 larches were sent from Europe as a curiosity 
 to a gentleman in Scotland. This gentleman's 
 gardener wished to take great care of them ; 
 but he did not know that the larch thrives 
 best in a cold climate, so he put them in the 
 hot-house ! Here the young plants soon 
 withered and drooped, and the gardener threw 
 them out on to a heap of rubbish. In the 
 open air they revived, took root, and began to 
 grow well. One of them was planted on the 
 lawn before the gentleman's house and lived 
 till a very few years ago. 
 
 Millions of larches are now grown in England, 
 for it is a most useful tree. It grows quickly, 
 with a straight stem, and its wood is tough 
 and durable.
 
 OUR LAST DAY 
 
 77 
 
 Just at the end of the larch plantation 
 stand two tall and graceful trees, one on each 
 side of the path. The tree on our right has 
 branches the ends of 
 which hang down, and 
 they are so light and 
 slender that they sway 
 to and fro even in the 
 gentlest breeze. The 
 bark is shining and 
 silvery, but this has 
 peeled off in places, and 
 the darker wood be- 
 neath gives the stem a 
 dappled appearance. 
 This is a birch, which is, 
 perhaps, the most grace- 
 ful tree we have. 
 
 Now look at the slope 
 of that hill half a mile 
 away, which is covered 
 
 with uncut coppice wood. The sun is shining 
 on it, and the hill glows with a rich purple 
 colour. The coppice is birch, and it is the 
 stems and buds of the young birches that have 
 this beautiful purple colour all through the 
 winter. 
 
 BIRCH IN WINTER.
 
 78 
 
 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 The tree on our left is an ash. The lower 
 branches hang down, but they are stouter 
 than those of the birch. Even the twigs at 
 
 the ends of the 
 branches are 
 thick and blunt, 
 and they turn 
 slightly upwards 
 instead of point - 
 ing to the 
 ground. 
 
 Just outside 
 a village which 
 we have reached 
 we notice several young 
 men at work in a field. 
 This field is part of the 
 forest " nursery " where 
 young trees are grown 
 till they are large enough 
 to be planted out in the 
 woods. The seed of 
 trees is sometimes sown in the place where 
 they are to grow all their lives ; more often 
 the seed is sown in the nursery, and the young 
 trees remain there till they are large enough 
 to be transplanted. 
 
 LEAF AND SEEDS OF ASH
 
 OUR LAST DAY 79 
 
 In the open woods very tiny trees might 
 be trampled on, or smothered among grass and 
 weeds. Rabbits, or our friend the squirrel, 
 might gnaw the tender bark. In the nursery 
 the baby trees can be well looked after. 
 
 Here are many rows of tiny trees, some of 
 them only a few inches high. Spruces and 
 larches are here, as well as beeches and several 
 sorts of pine. The men at work are digging 
 up some of the little trees which are now old 
 enough to be planted out. 
 
 A little further on, in the village, is a large 
 building; the door is open and we go in. 
 There are seats and desks, and it is evidently 
 a kind of schoolroom. There are also a great 
 many pieces of wood " sections " of the 
 branches and trunks of trees. Round the 
 walls are glass cases containing moths, 
 caterpillars, and beetles. 
 
 This is a " School of Forestry." This forest 
 belongs to the Government it is a " Crown 
 Forest " ; the growing of the trees and all the 
 work of the woods is managed in the best 
 possible way. The Government has recently 
 established this school in which to train young 
 men to become good foresters. 
 
 The pupils spend their time partly in the
 
 80 AN ENGLISH FOREST 
 
 school, and partly working in the woods. 
 They are taught in the woods the right way of 
 planting a young tree and how to treat it as 
 it grows. They learn to recognise harmful 
 insects when they see them, and also the signs 
 of disease in trees for trees suffer from 
 diseases just as human beings and animals do. 
 In the school the young men hear lectures on 
 these insects and tree-diseases, and on every- 
 thing which a forester ought to know. 
 
 I think it is a fine life for which they are 
 being trained. It is a healthy life ; men who 
 work in the woods suffer little from illness. 
 It is interesting work, too, to plant a tree, to 
 watch it growing year by year, and to help it 
 to grow large and strong by keeping it free 
 from disease and from the attacks of insects. 
 
 And the forester's life is a very useful life. 
 Many people now think that it would be a 
 good thing if some of our waste land were 
 planted with trees ; the woods we have, too, 
 are not always managed as well as they should 
 be. Trees make work ; work for the woodmen 
 who tend them while they grow, and cut them 
 down ; and work for those who use the timber 
 which the trees produce. 
 
 TURN-HULL AND 8FEABS, PRINTERS, EDINBURGH
 
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