418 JOURNAL OF I'ORIiSTllY 



Fuel wood was evidently obtained not only from cull material, as 

 already indicated, but by cutting green timber. Ezekiel (39-9) pre- 

 dicts that after the rout of the invading army of Gog, "they that dwell 

 in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and make fires of the weapons and 

 burn them, . . . and they shall make fires of them seven years; 

 so that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any 

 out of the forests." It would seem that Biblical fuel bills were either 

 pretty light, or else Gog left behind an extraordinary number of 

 weapons. 



HEBRi:w SILVICULTURE 



There are many passages in the books of the Prophets showing that 

 some of the rudimentary principles of silviculture were understood, 

 and that artificial planting was practiced to some extent. Solomon 

 (in Ecclesiastes 2-4) says that he planted great vineyards, orchards, 

 gardens, and parks, and also "made me pools of water, to water there- 

 from the forest where trees were reared." Isaiah (44-14) speaks of a 

 carpenter who planted a fir tree, and later used it for fuel and lumber. 

 The context gives the impression that such instances of planting for 

 wood production were common, but probably on a very small scale. 

 Isaiah (41-9) seems to have had some knowledge of forest types and 

 the ecological relations of species. He quotes Jehovah in this manner : 

 "I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia tree, and the myrtle, 

 and the oil tree ; I will set in the desert the fir tree, the pine, and the 

 box tree together." He also makes the following interesting statement 

 (55-13) which possibly refers to the succession of forest types: "In- 

 stead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree, and instead of the brier 

 shall come up the myrtle tree." 



Some of the peculiarities of various species in their manner of repro- 

 duction are mentioned. Isaiah (44-4) says: "They shall spring up 

 among the grass as willows by the watercourses." He also speaks of 

 the oak and the terebinth reproducing by coppice (6-13). Job (14-7) 

 also mentions coppice, but does not give the species. Ezekiel (17) in 

 his parable of the Eagles and the Cedar, tells about an eagle that 

 cropped ofi the leader of a big cedar and planted it high on another 

 mountain, and it brought forth boughs, and bore fruit, and was a 

 goodly tree. I do not know the cedar of Lebanon but it sounds highly 

 improbable that any conifer should grow from cuttings. I think this 

 is a case of "poetic license." 



