Appendix No. 1. xxiii
stagnant, so that the soil does not become actually marshy, draining is a
mistake. There is no doubt that the premature decay of the pedunculate
oak in many places, and its disappearance in others, are due to over-
drainage." There is here no real discrepancy. Nursery ground should
be prepared in a manner probably over-stimulating to older trees:
sloping plantations, or those in deep sand or gravel, seldom or never
require drainage; but a marsh on level clay or stiff loam will do so, if
trees are to be grown on it for profit. Many tracts in the New Forest, the
Forest of Dean, and our other ancient forests, have probably never been
covered by trees, being marsh, moor, or heath-land—good cover for small
game. In Epping Forest we have a tract mainly on gravel, which, how-
ever, often forms a stiffish loam. Much of the ground is sloping, forming
the watershed between the Lea and the Boding, and the water is seldom
absolutely stagnant even in the marshy bottoms. Hornbeam, alder, and
oak will flourish in nearly every part of the Forest in its present con-
dition; whilst deep-draining will cause their disappearance from many
tracts. The Essex botanist has already to deplore the loss in this district,
through drainage, of the Whortleberry and the Cranberry (Vaccinium
Vitis-idaea and V. oxycoccos), and, unless the natural condition of the
Forest, in its varied and unsophisticated beauties, is left unmolested,
other species, perhaps of far greater importance, will be added to the list
of extinctions. Further, whilst drainage and other interference must
certainly thus injuriously affect our smaller flora, it is more than doubtful
whether it will achieve any useful result so far as trees are concerned.
The most that might be done, considering the soil, is to convert a charac-
teristically English hard-wood forest into a bad imitation of a Scotch
conifer plantation. In the case of Epping Forest, and of other open
spaces round London which it is desired to retain as such for the health
of the community, and not for profit, the best practical regulation would
be "that no flowering plant, shrub or tree be uprooted on any pretence,
or by any person, and that no timber-tree be felled unless within three
yards of two other trees."
III.
On the Protection of Wild Animals and Birds.
By J. E. Hasting, F.L.S., F.Z.S., Editor of the 'Zoologist.'
In carrying out a scheme such as that proposed by the Essex Field
Club, namely, a scheme for the protection of indigenous wild animals
within a defined area in the county of Essex, two or three points of im-
portance should be considered. Firstly, an experiment of the kind, to be
successful in its results, should be continued for a period of not less than
three years, to give time for such species as are now scarce or extinct, but
to be reintroduced, to settle down in new haunts and reproduce their kind ;
secondly, where practicable, the natural growth of trees and underwood
should be as little as possible interfered with, and the making of roads be
avoided, so as to ensure proper shelter and repose ; and thirdly, attention
should be confined to the protection and preservation of such species only
as are already resident, or are likely to become so, within the area selected,
disregarding for this purpose species of migratory habits, whose natural
instinct would prompt them at certain seasons to leave the district in
question.
It is perhaps too much to expect that the landowners who may
be interested in the experiment, especially if they are game-preservers,
should forego their accustomed privilege of shooting when and where they
please; but there can be no question that the less often a gun is heard