THE MANAGEMENT OF EPPING FOREST.
61
done to excess or not, that the picturesque and natural appearance of our Forest
is the sole object which has been held in view.
From what I have seen, and for whatever my opinion may be worth, I join
issue with those who assert that the present policy is destructive of confidence in
the existing management. Pending the official report of the experts who have
been appointed by the Committee, I appeal to the statements of the Editor of
"The Gardener's Magazine," whose opinions are trebly valuable—first, as an ex-
pert ; secondly, as one of the few fair and temperate critics of the recent operations ;
and, lastly, because he is in some measure a hostile witness. He says with
respect to thinning : "The work in Great Monk Wood, Hawk Wood, and Lord's
Bushes was entered upon with the object of giving more room for promising
young tree; and fine old pollards in those parts of the Forest, and a more laud-
able object in connection with forest management could not well be conceived.
It is of course desirable that young trees should enjoy the light and air essential
to the formation of stout shapely trunks, and that old pollards should have the
space required for the free extension of their branches. There cannot be two
opinions upon these points among those who have devoted any considerable share
of their attention to arboricultural matters, and to discuss them is therefore un-
necessary." Again : "A considerable amount of thinning has been done on the
opposite side of Theydon Bois Road, and although a few more trees may have
been removed than was required, the thinning is, for some distance northward,
highly judicious. The opening out of the track in the Forest from the Theydon1'
Bois Road is a decided improvement, and I should like to see some further
thinning at this point." And again: "It will have been gathered from what I
have already said that I regard judicious thinning as essential to the proper
management of woodlands, and if my views upon what has been done are not in
exact accordance with those responsible for the thinning, it must be understood
that my object is not to raise an outcry against the removal of a tree, or, indeed,
a stick of wood, however ill-placed."6
Indeed, when the elements of this controversy come to be resolved into their
ultimate constituents, I think we shall find that differences of opinion will re-
solve themselves largely into matters of individual taste. It is precisely upon
such points that it is most difficult to arrive at any unanimity. In going over
the districts now cleared or marked for thinning I have seen some cases to
which I should demur. But when it comes to such questions as to whether one
tree should have been felled in preference to another, whether one particular
group should have been left intact and another group thinned, whether a view
should be opened out in one direction rather than another, or whether the view
should remain permanently shut out by a dense wall of foliage—then I say we are
dealing with individual tastes, upon which no two of you in this room would be in
absolute agreement ; and if you are going to appeal to the public for decision we
should have a pretty mess of a forest in a very short time. I dissent most
strongly from the statement of one of our members in" The Times," (April 3rd),
who says : "I contend it is purely a question for the public." It might as well be
maintained that when a difference of opinion exists between medical experts as
6 An eminent botanist and authority on arboriculture writes with reference to the dislike
shown to the cutting down of trees : "It is a fatal mistake. I never saw a woodland yet which
would not be improved from an ornamental and sylvan point of view by a copious thinning. If
the growth of timber is desired from a commercial point of view, a totally different set of con-
siderations come into play. Plantations for timber purposes are not, however, beautiful, and are
not what you want in the Forest." I regret that the writer of this opinion, for reasons which 
have nothing to do with the present meeting, does not desire to have his name made known. 
—R. M.