FOREST TERMINOLOGY 69 



revising and finally deciding on definitions, and at last running the 

 gauntlet of the collating committee. 



It may, then, be said that the final report is the mature judgment, 

 laboriously arrived at, by representative men of the profession, who by 

 their occupation are in position to use the terminology systematically. 



That even after this careful revision, omissions, discrepancies, and 

 disagreements will remain is to be expected. Indeed, in a few instances 

 differences of opinion as to proper usage could not be entirely settled 

 even in the committee itself, the collating committee recording its 

 disagreements, leaving it to further development in practical use as to 

 which view will be preferred. 



It should be realized that, after aU, terms are nothing but language — 

 terms are merely a device of shortening language— language is in part a 

 matter of personal taste, of personal habit, and is also a matter of growth. 

 Terms are convenient names for groups of things or of relations within 

 certain limits (the word "term," indeed, meaning a "limit"). By 

 extending the limits arbitrarily term language becomes unstable, unsafe 

 and confusing. Especially in technical language a more precisely 

 limited meaning given to terms is an advantage and leads to clearer 

 thinking. To secure a uniform use of terms it is necessary to seciu"e an 

 agreement of those who use term language. Language being a matter 

 of taste and growth, different people, and at different times, form the 

 habit of using certain expressions to denote certain concepts. Once 

 such a habit is formed, it is difficult to eradicate it because the personal 

 element is strongly conservative. It will, however, be admitted that in 

 scientific and professional work for the sake of clearness a uniform use of 

 terms is desirable, and to render this possible — by no means to force it — 

 an agreement must be reached and a definite meaning attached to each 

 term. This is what the coftimittee has attempted. 



In doing it, it has as far as possible tried to ascertain the best usage 

 and recorded it. It has almost entirely avoided the coining of new 

 terms, not more than five terms being of that description. It has ruled 

 out a number of terms that were introduced in Bulletin 61 (Bureau of 

 Forestry) as either ill chosen or not necessary. 



The principles which have guided the committee in choosing terms, 

 where there was uncertain use, were formulated by the chairman as 

 follows : 



(a) A term should be necessary. As long as common language is 

 sufficient to precisely state the idea, special terminology is superfluous, 

 except, perhaps, for special cases or special writings. A corollary is 



