Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-07-15
USING UP ENGLISH
TREES
Forests Made to Help Win the
War Against the Huns.

The war has necessitated a consid-
cradle sacrifice of England's famous
forests. Lumbermen from Canada
and the United States are every
where cutting out the timber that is
Mt for commercial use. In some
forest stretches, little more than a
shelter belt Of trees is left to protect
new saplings: The woods Of Virginia
Water, at Windsor. have been worked
over by the lumberjacks; SO have the
woods of Beaulieu; the magnificent
silver frs Of -Longleat; the Spanish
chestnuts of Welbeck, in the historic
Sherwood. forest of Robin Hood and
his merry men,; and the oaks of
Forest of Dean and of New Forest.
Still known as the best of ships
timber, and once cultivated as ma
terial for the famous wooden walls
of England" these oaks are going the
way OF their bosky compatriots to do
their "bit" for the war.
C%uriously enough, the English for
ests have been associated with some
times. When Caractacusr and Boa
dicea were vainly trying Ito resist the
legions Of Rome, Britain was densely
wooded. and Caesar described the
Britons as q true forest race. Their
military tactics consisted in r~etreating
hastily to the depths Of the woods,
after delivering an unsuccessful at
tack, and hampering the Roman line
OF march by, blocking the rough tracks
with felled trees. Their villages. or
towns" were merely clusters of
protection within large clearings made
IN the forest, and guarded by ramp,
ditch and intertwined branches of
thorny trees. The woods abounded
with game, and the chase formed one
of the chief means Of subsistence.
When, however, husbandry began
to receive SOME attention, under later
Saxon rule, wild animals like the
deer, the wolf. and the boar were
confined within the depths Of the
forests. n lands were gradually in,
closed. The sanctuaries of the wild
beasts were appropriated for the priv
ate amusement of the hunting thames
and earls until these tracts were I'm
ally reserved for the recreation of
the monarchs. Forests thus came to
be considered the special royal pos
session. When William Of Normandy
vanquished Harold, at Hastings, he
found sixty-eight such forests, and,
being addicted to the chase, he inn
ported French notions Of the sacred
character Of royal property which
were distinctly obnoxious to the inde-
pendent Saxon. William held, too,
that he could, by his own decree,
make a forest wherever he pleased,
and cause any particular tract to be
anorested, w%hereupon all the bound
aries were removed, the land was
kept open, and the forest laws were
considered as binding on the in
habitants. The creation of the New
Forest in southern England was a
case in point. No man was allowed
to inclose his own property, the royal
areas, and none might bend q bow
without warrant of the crown.
Now 1t Is not q little singular that,
in the modern usage Of the word "for-
est" we have gone considerably
astray from Its significance in Nor
man days. We r apt, indeed, to ex-
perience something like q shock when,
opening dictionaries, we find that
forest" was applied to an "open
space reserved for the purpose of the
chase" It is natural to.think Of a
But trees were not essential to the
composition Of q Norman forest. All
kinds of land, from woodland to
moor and waste, were included, and
a forest could ever be a district that,
once wooded, was under cultivation.
In old English law It was defined as q
tract OF woodland, waste, and pasture,
usually belonging to the sovereign,
and set apart for the keeping and
hunting Of game.
Strangely enough, the better
known OF tho English forests have
preserved this character to this day.
Created primarily for game cpverts,
and since cultivated or maintained in
part for their noble landscape effects,
they comprise every form Of terrain
from woodland to waste. Exmoor,
OF "Lorna Doone' fame, is mostly
moor; New Forest is largely pasture
and arabic land; Epping IL partly
open country; Sherwood, Of the noble
estates, like q county OF itself. with
Its villages, hamlets, parks and al
ternate farms and woods. Here and
there are the woodlands, the I'm
penertable recesses, the poetical,
sylvan retreats like Burnham. the
towering pines OF AahdoWtn. the Gothic
Aisles like 6ayernake.gth the hoary oak
Stoves harborinE glant .Major.G
the true English forest. the trees do
not always play N essential part
Chrtsttan science Monitor.
Who lid Bnrleson va no sood4
Two o. htS AanGhtery have sntored TIE
naval SERVICES q second clas0 Syooyyo-
men and ~ On duty In the ofioo 81
Ithe paynepAbse.