The first serious inroads by extensive fellings occurred under Edward III in the first half of the 14th century to enrich the treasury for the French wars. Again, Henry VIII in the 16th century, when he seized the church properties for his own use, turned them into cash. A hundred years later, James I reduced the forest area, especially in Ireland, by his colonization schemes. Yet both, Henry VIII and James I, are on record as encouraging forest planting for utility. Charles I, James’ successor, always in need of cash, alienated many of the crown forests, and turned them into cash, besides extorting money through the forest courts. During the Revolution, beginning in 1642, and during Cromwell’s reign a licentious devastation of the confiscated or mortgaged noblemen’s woods took place. Finally, under Charles II, the needs for the royal navy forced attention to the reduction of wood supplies, and as a result of the agitation to encourage the growth of timber, a member of the newly formed Royal Society was deputed to prepare an essay, which, published in 1662, has become the classic work of English forest literature, namely John Evelyn’s _Sylva_, or “_A Discourse of Forest Trees_,” which has experienced eleven editions. It should, however, be mentioned that an earlier writer, whom Evelyn often quotes, Tuffer, before the reign of Elizabeth, in 1526, published his “Five Hundred Points of Husbandry,” a versification in which treeplanting received attention. Ever since that time, periodically and spasmodically, the question of forestry has been agitated, without much serious result. From 1775 to 1781, the Society of Arts in London offered gold medals and prizes for treeplanting, and in the beginning of the 19th century a revival of arboricultural interest was experienced, perhaps as a result of an interesting report by the celebrated Admiral Nelson on the mismanagement of the forest of Dean, concern for naval timber giving the incentive, in which he recommended the planting of oak for investment. At that time, a Surveyor-General, with an insufficient force, was in charge of the crown forests. In 1809, the management was placed under a board of three Commissioners, one of whom being a member of the parliament was to be changed with the administration. Under this management, graft became so rampant that, in 1848, a committee of the House of Commons was appointed, whose report revealed the most astonishing rottenness, placing a stigma on government management such as we still uncover in the United States from time to time. A reorganization took place in 1851. At that time the royal forests and parks, reduced in extent to about 200,000 acres, showed a deficiency of $125,000, mostly, to be sure, occasioned by the parks. There was then still a tribute of some 600 bucks to be delivered to various personages, as was the ancient usage.