THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB. 167
convenient way to present Prof. Boulger's criticisms in the form given in a letter
which he addressed to the Council. He wrote :
" The Club ought not, of course to be committed to the entirety of any one
member's opinion on a controverted question like that of the management of the
Forest. Nevertheless, as representing, as Mr. Buxton says, the presence of a
healthy public opinion, as representing the interests of inhabitants of the district,
of a respectable class of London visitors and of naturalists, and as having in the
past maintained the spirit of the Epping Forest Act, the Club ought, I think,
to decide whether mismanagement is now going on, and if so, in what particulars
and to what extent. Personally I maintain that mismanagement is shown (1) by
excessive drainage, (2) by the making of new and quite unnecessary 'rides,' (3) by
the selection of the wrong pollards for preservation, (4) by the clearing away of
young spear-trees, (5) by the absence of skilled supervision in the marking
of trees for felling, and (6) by the neglect of parts of the Forest where clearing
is most needed.
As to (1) I think most people lose sight of the considerations I once before
brought before the Club, viz., that most of our forest-trees like a moist sub-soil,
and that the Forest being on a ridge, there is considerable natural drainage.
(3) I do not only fully admit that it is desirable that many of the pollards
should be removed ; but see no reason why in time they should not all be
replaced by spear-trees. Meanwhile, however, this is not to be accomplished by
leaving the worst masses of disease standing and felling the sounder ones, as has
been done in scores of places ; or (4) by making a clear sweep of undergrowth,
spear-trees, coppice, and all—unless indeed the Committee have the means and
courage to clear the land, trench it, or pit-plant it, and replace the forest by
plantations.
(5) What I have seen of the work of the foreman, or whatever he is, does not
lead me to consider him to be so judicious a supervisor as could be trusted to his
own devices.
(6) Since the Forest was taken over by the Corporation, a large area in Great
Monk Wood (e.g.) of drawn-up leafless pollards has been crying aloud, but in
vain, for attention.
The old pollards will never make good trees, and where is the new growth to
come from ? The pollards are now too far apart and expose the intervening space
to being trampled hard. Why has the growth of several years, either of poles
from stools or of spear seedlings, been entirely sacrificed ? I look upon it as a
waste of nearly ten years in the work of Forest regeneration.
I fully agree with you as to the desirability of a survey by a skilled forester,
provided that his mind be first entirely disabused of the idea that the Forest is to
be managed for its timber, or profit, or as a park or plantation. If there is not
to be a swamp or a tangle left, what becomes of the 'natural aspect of the
forest ?' "]
Mr. Andrew Johnston, J.P. (Chairman, County Council), who for ten years
was one of the Verderers, made some remarks, in the main defending the Con-
servators in their actions. He said that the need of planting had not been
overlooked, but it was also thought that some of the large open spaces should be
retained in the interests of many of the frequenters of the forest. He thought
that the rank growing sticks, which had been forced up by the overgrowing trees,
had rightly been cleared away—he could not admire them, and a natural growth of
bushes was far better. He feared that no young growth of spear-trees could be
hoped for while the cattle roamed in such numbers all over the forest. He
thought that the best manner of dealing with the forest was not so simple a
problem as some appeared to think, and he admitted that the shifting nature of
the Epping Forest Committee (members being compelled to retire after a few
years) was detrimental to its power of really good management. As soon as a
member began to understand his duties, he had to retire, and therefore the