(190 JOURNAL OF FORESTRY 



result of repeated experiences in harvesting the forest crop. The de- 

 termination of the sustained annual yield of a selection forest, for ex- 

 ample, usually is accomplished by first fixing some rather arbitrary and 

 very conservative figure (perhaps obtained by dividing the total volume 

 above a given diameter limit by the cutting cycle) and then watching the 

 effect of cutting at this rate on the stand. If the growing stock is seen 

 to increase and trees are being left until silviculturally overmature, then 

 the annual cut is increased until the proper conditions are obtained. 



The restrictions placed by the French foresters on logging often 

 struck American lumbermen and foresters alike as ridiculously strin- 

 gent. But while interfering exceedingly with our methods of logging 

 and manufacture they will almost always be found, if sympathetic con- 

 sideration is given, to be entirely feasible and in accord with French 

 economic conditions (such as cheap labor and high cost of material, 

 etc.). In a similar way, French mensuration, while accomplishing 

 admirably its own particular task, cannot be applied in general to our 

 forests. The lesson we learn, then, is not that of methods that we can 

 directly imitate. French forestry is an art rather than a science — an 

 art with a few simple canons, but which must be practiced with patient 

 personal devotion ; it is never a machine that any fool can run. But it 

 heads straight for the desired goal. If formulae and classifications are 

 seen to hinder and delay rather than to assist, they are immediately 

 discarded. A rule of thumb that zvorks is esteemed far above a scien- 

 tifically accurate but unwieldy formula. 



May not this point of view tend to clean out some of the cobwebs that 

 are already gathering in some of the corners of American forestry? 



