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