[ad. OF. foresterie, f. forest FOREST; or f. FOREST sb. + -RY. In sense 4 f. FOREST(E)R + -Y.]
1. Sc. Law. The privileges of a royal forest. b. An estate to which this privilege is attached.
1693. Visct. Stair, Instit. Law Scot., II. iii. § 67. 235. The King having by a Signature under his hand, granted a Forrestry to the Laird of Fascally.
1751. Ld. Bankton, Instit. Laws Scot., I. II. iii. 573. The privilege of a Free forrest is among these Regalia that require a particular grant in the charter, and was not comprehended in an erection into a regality: in order to create it, the lands must be erected into a free forrestry.
a. 1763. Erskine, Inst. Law Scot., II. vi. § 14. Lands erected by the crown with the right of forestry, had all the privileges of a King’s forest.
1872. Bell’s Princ. Law Scot. (ed. Guthrie), § 753. The right of forestry is not conferred by erection into a barony; but may be conveyed by a conveyance of the barony.
2. Wooded country; a vast extent of trees.
1823. Byron, Juan, X. lxxxii.
| Here and there a sail just skipping | |
| In sight, then lost amidst the forestry | |
| Of masts. |
1865. Morning Star, 20 May. Let this amphitheatre be filled with a forestry of genealogical trees.
1879. Browning, Ivan Ivanovitch, 19.
| Through forestry right and left, black verst and verst of pine, | |
| From village to village runs the road’s long wide bare line. |
3. The science and art of forming and cultivating forests, management of growing timber.
1859. Tennent, Ceylon, II. VII. v. 211. A knowledge of agriculture, horticulture, forestry, pharmacy, and toxicology have each been demanded.
1881. Horne, Fiji, vii. 137. It is necessary that a person with a fair knowledge of forestry be appointed to regulate and superintend the felling of timber on crown lands, marking off reserves, &c.
attrib. 1881. Atlantic Monthly, XLVII. Feb., 166. A great advance from the day of small things following the Revolutionary War, when a few hundred small sailing vessels, taking out forestry, fishery, and farm products, and bringing back manufactures, constituted the whole foreign commerce of the young nation in the New World.
1885. Manch. Exam., 28 Jan., 5/5. Mr. Gladstone … has been engaged in forestry operations.
4. The principles and organization of the ‘Ancient Order of Foresters.’
1861. Morning Star, 21 Aug., 3. It is … about 30 years since forestry, in its present development, took its rise.
