4 Forestry Quarterly. 



sons of those giant trees show the signs of threatening death 

 before they have attained one quarter of the vohime which the 

 old ones contained, and no art nor science can produce on the 

 forest soil which has become less fertile, such forests as are here 

 and there still being cut down. 



The good forester then, also, allows the forest to become less, 

 but only where it cannot be helped ; the poor forester, on the 

 other hand, spoils them everywhere. 



Without utilization, the forest soil improves constantly ; if used 

 in orderly manner it remains in a natural equilibrium ; if used 

 faultily it becomes poorer. The good forester takes the highest 

 yield from the forest without deteriorating the soil, the poor one 

 neither obtains this yield nor preserves the fertility of the soil. 



It is hardly credible how much one can benefit or damage by 

 the kind of management ; the true forestry science contains, 

 therefore, much more than those think, who know only its gene- 

 ralities. 



Thirty years ago, I prided myself on knowing forestry .science 

 well. Had I not grown up with it and in addition had learned it 

 in the universities ! Since then I have not lacked the oppor- 

 tunity for increasing my knowledge in many directions, but during 

 this long period I have come to see very clearly how little I know 

 of the depths of the science, and to learn that this science has by 

 no means reached that point which many believe to have been 

 passed . 



Many perhaps may be in the condition in which I was thirty 

 years ago ; may they in the same manner be cured of their conceit ! 

 Forestry is based on the knowledge of nature ; the deeper we 

 penetrate its secrets, the deeper the depths before us. What the 

 light of an oil lamp makes visible is easily overlooked ; many 

 more things we can see by torch light, but infinitely more in the 

 sun light. The lighter it grows around us, the more unknown 

 things become apparent, and it is a sure .sign of shallowness, if 

 anybody believes he knows it all. 



Our foresters can .still be divided into empiricists and scientists, 

 rarely are both united. 



What the former considers sufficient in a forest management is 

 easily learned, and the systematic teachings of the other are soon 

 memorized. But in practice the art of the first stands to a 



