stretch of unplanted clearance or a belt of broad-leaved trees, or the fire may burn right through to the other side of the woods.

Broad fire-protection belts, well planted with broad-leaved trees, are the best natural means of checking conflagrations, and these should always be provided when very extensive conifer woods are formed in localities exposed to risk from fire. The path or line used as a base can be broadened, if necessary, by rapidly clearing away the trees along the outside edge. But the success of this work, as well as the rapid clearance of inflammable matter from the ground to work against a ground-fire, depend on operations being taken in hand far enough ahead of the fire to enable them to be completed before this can reach the newly cleared line. Poles and trees felled should be lopped, and the branches removed to the far side of the woods, to obviate risk of their catching fire from sparks.

When a conflagration has obtained a firm hold on thickets and young pole-woods, the leaf- canopy should be well interrupted by firing the woods along the edge of one of the interior lines, caution being of course exercised to prevent the fire spreading into woods lying behind that. But in older crops there is less danger of that sort, and the main object then is to check the ground-fire.

Fires found in the inside of hollow stems, such as may be caused by picnic parties, or smoking out bees, &c., may be put out by filling the hollow. with sods of turf and earth, thus cutting off the supply of oxygen. If this cannot be done, the tree should be felled and the fire put out with earth.

Soil-Fire which may have broken out in a peat-moor can only be extinguished by digging trenches deep enough to reach the mineral soil and isolate the burning part.

When once a fire has been extinguished in a wood, watchmen should be left in charge, especially when there is any strong breeze, to see that it does not break out again. On warm nights in August a good watch should be kept all night long. Earth should be thrown on all smoking and smouldering stems which glow in the dark, and the watch should be kept till all danger is past.

Remedying Damage from Fire. - Young conifer plantations that are badly damaged usually need to be cleared and replanted; but young crops of broad-leaved trees, having greater natural recuperative power, can quite well reproduce themselves if coppiced. Among the latter, Beech is the least hardy. against fire. Owing to its smooth thin bark, even a slight ground-fire injures it. The woodland crops least liable to damage are old woods, especially of thick-barked trees like Oak or Pine. When the foliage in old woods looks sickly and unhealthy after a ground-fire, or trees die off here and there, it is often necessary to clear the crop. This is especially the case in conifer woods, to obviate danger from noxious insects. After any serious fire in conifer woods, the forester and his woodmen should pay special attention to noting anything like an increase in the number of injurious insects. Attention should in particular be paid to species which breed in the roots and the lower parts of the stems of poles and trees.

CHAPTER II.

PROTECTION AGAINST FARM LIVE-STOCK, GAME, AND THE LARGER KINDS OF VERMIN.

I. Farm Live-Stock, consisting of cattle, horses, sheep, goats, and swine, cause damage in woods by nibbling buds, leaves, and young shoots; by gnawing and stripping bark; by injuring roots with their hard hoofs and horny feet; by bending back young growth and saplings; by dislodging soil on slopes; by stamping down damp, heavy clay soil, and loosening light sandy soil; and by breaking down the sides of drains.

The damage varies greatly, according to the kind and number of animals; but in general these may be classed in the following order: goats, horses, sheep, cattle, and swine. Sheep and cattle are, however, by far the most important in Britain.

1. Goats, fortunately seldom to be reckoned among the live-stock on British farms, are the most injurious, because, even when grass and other herbage is plentiful, they prefer to graze on leaves, buds, and young shoots. By standing on their hind-legs, they can reach up to the crowns of big sturdy saplings. Many of the mountain forests in Southern Europe have been almost totally destroyed through the unrestricted grazing of herds of goats, which devastated the seedling crops, raised by natural regeneration of old woods. There seems to be something poisonous about their bite, which is far more injurious and lasting in its effects than that of other animals.

2. Horses usually prefer the short grass along the sides of roads to the ranker grass growing inside the woods; but they are fond of young foliage and succulent shoots, which they can strip to a considerable height. Young horses are also fond of gnawing the bark. Their great weight and their ironshod hoofs cause a good deal of damage to young seedlings, and to shallow superficial roots.

The English forests were at one time overrun with horses, and especially the New Forest (Hants). An Act, known as the Drift of Forests, had to be passed in 1540, which ordered that the forests, heaths, chases, and waste grounds should be driven once a-year, on St Michael's Day or within fifteen days after it, for ascertaining that the forests were not burdened by too many horses and cattle owned by those possessing common rights, and for killing weakly mares and foals.

3. Sheep, besides feeding on grass, are, like goats, fond of nibbling young leaves and shoots, and often do considerable damage when frequently grazed in any one wood, their tread tending to break up loose sandy soil only thinly overgrown with grass or weeds.

4. Cattle, on the other hand, which have always in Britain been grazed in large numbers in the forests and woodlands, prefer feeding on grass and other herbage, and only browse on leaves and twigs when that is scanty. But where they do feed on leaves and young succulent shoots, they bend down strong saplings under their chests to reach the foliage; and where common grazing lands are planted, they rub themselves against and damage the poles. From their weight they loosen and dislodge soil on hill-slopes, and they damage young growth with their hard horny feet, often tearing out plants along with the tufts of earth held by their roots. Where there is a very strong growth of grass in young pole-woods, however, the grazing of cattle may be of use in checking this.

Young cattle, horses, sheep, or goats do more damage than old beasts. Even where grass and herbage are plentiful, they nibble young timber crops, partly from wantonness and partly to assist operations when changing their teeth. If cattle in thin condition are grazed in woods after being poorly fed in winter, they do much damage to the young plantations, as they greedily devour all they can.

5. Swine were driven into the English woods from time immemorial for pannage, and in Saxon times the value of woods was estimated by the pannage afforded. But the herding of swine for pannage in the woods, formerly so important, has, like the grazing there of sheep and cattle, lost much of its early importance. In most places it is now quite a thing of the past, partly owing to the more extensive potato cultivation, and partly to the gradual clearance of the old Oak and Beech woods. Swine eat acorns and Beech-nuts greedily, and also the cotyledons of Oak and Beech seedlings; and while wallowing and snouting in the ground after grubs and mast, they root up many small plants and damage the roots of large ones. On grazing land they rub themselves against and damage young trees.

On the Continent it has been found that irregular and unchecked herding of swine can be very injurious to forests, but that the damage can easily be minimised if the herds be limited in number, and pannage be only permitted under proper supervision. In many cases swine can be of great use in woodlands. In soil-preparation for seed-fellings of Beech and for covering the mast, for example, the wallowing of swine can be very useful, while it also helps to destroy injurious insects, whose larvæ and chrysalids are eagerly devoured when found hibernating in the soil.

Damage may be prevented or reduced to a minimum if herds of swine are confined to old woods, where the tree-roots are not likely to be injured, and if there is always a swineherd in charge. If, as is usual at mast time, they are to be left all night in the woods, they should be penned at night.

In the natural regeneration of Beech-woods in Germany, the herding of swine in ordinary mast years ceases when the fall of the nuts becomes general; but in good seed years it still goes on in the enclosures undergoing regeneration, to have the benefit of their breaking up the ground by snouting and working the seed

into the soil with their feet. But they are only driven in there after feeding elsewhere, so that they are unable to devour much mast before beginning to wallow and snout in the ground. If herding begins before the acorns and beech-nuts fall, or if the herds are too large, there is, of course, all the more risk of damage being done to the roots of seedlings already on the ground.

6. The extent of the damage caused by farm live-stock varies mainly according to the kind of animal grazed; but of course it is also dependent on various other circumstances, such as the nature and age of the timber-crop, the soil and situation, the number of the animals grazed, and the time and manner of their being herded in the woods.

Different kinds of trees suffer to a different extent through grazing. Grazing animals usually prefer the foliage of broad-leaved trees to that of conifers, and only browse on the latter in the absence of the former. But the damage done to conifers is generally by far the more serious, because they are not endowed with anything like such recuperative power as broad-leaved trees in repairing damage. The different conifers vary considerably, however, in this respect. Scots Pine, if badly bitten while young, usually remains more or less stunted, while Silver Fir soon recovers. The shallow roots of Spruce are more apt to be cut and barked by the hoofs of cattle than deep-rooting Pine and Larch. All conifers, however, are in so far more damaged by grazing, that injuries to bark or shoots enable parasitic fungi to effect an entrance; and the destruction caused by them, and by injurious insects, is far greater than in young broad-leaved crops.

Grazing animals prefer the leaves and young shoots of Beech, Ash, Elm, Oak, Maple, Sycamore, Hornbeam, and other hardwoods to those of Willows, Aspen, Poplars generally, and other softwoods; while Lime, Birch, and Alder they seldom touch. Among conifers they prefer the young succulent shoots of Silver Fir, Douglas Fir, Spruce, Larch, and Weymouth Pine to the longer and harder sprays of Scots, Austrian, and Corsican Pine. Horses and sheep usually prefer young Oak foliage to any other; while sheep graze readily on Scots Pine and Birch on poor heathery tracts, and are glad to have any such change of diet.

The younger the crop injured, the greater is generally the damage done. Young seedling crops and plantations suffer most, whereas the damage done in old crops is often confined to surface-wounds on shallow roots by hornyfooted cattle. When there is a rank growth of grass the damage done by cattle and sheep is usually very slight, and grazing may then sometimes be beneficial in checking the growth of the grass and treading it under foot. Thus, on the Continent, cattle and sheep are sometimes driven in when the young crop seems likely to be damaged by rank growth of grass and weeds.

The moister and the more fertile the soil, the ranker is the growth of grass, and the less danger is there of the herds grazing on the plants, while the recuperative power of the latter is always stronger than on dry or poor land. On steep slopes there is constant risk of the soil being dislodged, and at the same time the animals grazed are much more likely to feed on the

crowns of the plants growing below them than is the case on level or gently sloping ground.

Stool-shoots in coppice-woods soon outgrow the reach of cattle, and they also possess a strong reproductive power, quickly repairing any damage done even when the falls are deliberately grazed over. Goats, however, poison the shoots with their bite, and should never be allowed inside any young wood. In young coppices, even where there is a strong growth of grass, more or less damage is always done by treading down and breaking young shoots. In coppice with standards there is always more danger than in simple coppices, because the young stores are very liable to damage.

When herds are grazed in woods early in spring, before the grass has come up freely, or are kept there till late in autumn, when the grass hardens and dries, or if they have been driven in in too large numbers, or have been allowed to graze too long in any one part of the area, more damage is of course done than would otherwise be the case. During wet weather cattle prefer young foliage to grass, probably because it retains less moisture and dries more quickly.

7. Protection against damage.-In Britain protection against grazing, and at the same time against deer and ground-game, is secured by Fencing (see pp. 22-37).

On the Continent of Europe, however, and in countries like India, grazing in woodlands is still a matter of importance; and in many of these countries the action of proprietors of woodlands is limited by rules such as the following, framed under Forest Acts, and having the force of law :

1. The closing of Falls bearing Young Crops.-How long the protective time should last is of course dependent on the species of crop, the conditions of its growth, and the nature of the grazing; but in any case protection must at least be given until the young woods have outgrown the reach of the cattle. The protected areas are usually distinguished by some well-known mark or visible sign, like wisps of straw bound to poles stuck in the ground, or by means of boards with the notice "Grazing forbidden."

2. Adequate Supervision.-Grazing should only be permitted under the supervision of a herdsman, with one or two lads under him in the case of large herds. In some localities it is prescribed that all the cattle, or at any rate the majority of the animals, must be provided with bells attached to their necks, so that cases of straying away from the herd, or getting lost in grassy plantations, may the more easily be prevented or discovered.

3. Prohibition of Grazing during the Night.—As supervision is impossible during the night-time, grazing should neither be allowed before sunrise nor after sundown.

4. Grazing herds should not be driven into the woods too soon in spring, nor should they consist of a more numerous head of animals than is likely to be amply provided with fodder from the area, while, at the same time, there should be a regular and adequate change in the localities grazed over. Too long-continued grazing in autumn, after the grass has begun to dry up and wither, should also be avoided.

5. Grazing paths, green lanes, or drives should be kept clear where large herds are in the habit of being led out and back; and where they pass through young woods, these green lanes should either have ditches at each side, or else be fenced off with poles. This latter method should, at the same time, be adopted to protect, as well as possible, young woodland growth where it marches with the land that is being grazed over.

6. When put out on grazing land, saplings should be protected by being bound round with thorns, or by means of three poles inserted triangularly, and secured so as to keep off the animals from the stem.